Missouri S&T Magazine Spring 2016

MISSOURI S&T MAGAZINE

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A 10-ACRE CLASSROOM

MAGAZINE SPRING 2016 VOL. 90 NO. 1

We are Missouri S&T students, alumni, faculty and staff.

MINERS GIVE BACK

MINERS

We give back to the community, the university and the world.

GIVE BACK

We give our time, knowledge, support, spirit and more!

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13 NEW ALUMNI 35 WE ARE YOU SAVING THE BATS

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JOIN THE CROWD S&T students understand the power of philanthropy. So do Miner alumni.

You can help the Miner Alumni Association board of directors, the New Alumni Council, STAT and Blue Key give back to our students.

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THE CHALLENGE During Philanthropy Month, get 1,500 students to give back.

Match that with 1,500 alumni gifts.

THE CAUSE Spirit of Change, which funds random acts of kindness and other support for students — things like free umbrellas on a rainy day, free hot chocolate on chilly mornings or feeding expired parking meters.

Join the crowd at crowdfunding.mst.edu/philanthropy2016

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AROUND THE PUCK

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Alumni of Influence Introducing the 2016 honorees.

A 10-acre classroom "There are some subjects you just can’t learn in a lab ..."

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S&T stargazer

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Hitting the sweet spot

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S&T goes green

Meet senior Ken Goss, the amateur astronomer who runs the S&T Observatory.

Senior Arielle Bodine examines the economics of golf’s major players.

A look back at the 108th Best Ever.

Working to enjoy the ride Ph.D. candidate Manish Sharma studied by candlelight in his native India.

FEATURES

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Miners give back During Philanthropy Month, learn about a few of the ways Miners give back — not just with treasure, but with time and talent, too.

BEYOND THE PUCK

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Section News

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Class notes

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Ever the optimist

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STEM superhero

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Memorials

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Coming full circle

Danny Ryan, ME’12, and the New Alumni Council are helping young alumni build a connection with S&T.

Find out what your former classmates are up to.

What do flapjacks, soccer fields and Christmas trees have in common? Ask Eric Bohannan, PhD Chem’99.

Steph Evans, AE’12, is changing the way people look at engineering.

We remember our classmates and friends.

John, AE’79, MS EMgt’90, and Marie Eash.

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7,931

Students enrolled on the first day of spring semester classes at Missouri S&T.

Total Missouri S&T graduates in 2015’s four commencement ceremonies.

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Alumni recruiters attending February’s pre-Career Fair breakfast hosted

by STAT (Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow).

MISSOURI S&T BY THE NUMBERS

48 36 Teams of high school students competing in Missouri’s FIRST Tech Challenge state robotics championship held at S&T in March.

Teams of high school students competing in the Missouri State VEX Robotics Championship held at Missouri S&T in February.

221 8 Employers recruiting S&T students at the annual Spring Career Fair in February.

MAGAZINE Missouri S&T Magazine is written, edited and designed by the staff of the Missouri S&T Marketing and Communications Department and the Miner Alumni Association.

CHANCELLOR Cheryl B. Schrader VICE CHANCELLOR FOR UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT Joan Nesbitt MINER ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT Richard W. Eimer Jr., EE’71 EDITORS Katie Jackson (Alumni) Mary Helen Stoltz, Engl’95 (News & Features) ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS John Kean Maridel Allinder Mindy Limback Andrew Careaga Joe McCune Peter Ehrhard ASSOCIATE ALUMNI EDITORS Logan Campbell Joe McCune Travis Sewell DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Jake Otto Lishia Stevens STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Sam O’Keefe CONTRIBUTORS Arielle Bodine Greg Katski Jesse Cureton Aimee Whitmire

Missouri S&T Magazine (ISSN 1084-6948) is issued three times per year (April, August, December) in the interest of the graduates and former students of the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, the University of Missouri-Rolla and Missouri University of Science and Technology. Missouri S&T Magazine is published by the Miner Alumni Association, Missouri S&T, 1100 N. Pine St., Rolla, MO 65409-0650.

Missouri S&T Magazine is printed by R.R. Donnelley, Liberty, Mo. Covers are printed on 114 lb. — 7 pt. Sterling White; interior pages are printed on 60 lb. Sterling White.

Miner swimmers selected to compete in the NCAA Division II Championships in Indianapolis.

Missouri S&T Magazine is printed using soy-based ink.

Send letters to: Darlene Ramsay Miner Alumni Association 1100 N. Pine St. Rolla, MO 65409-0650 Phone: 800-JO-MINER Fax: 573-341-4706 Email: alumni@mst.edu

News & features: Phone: 573-341-4328 Fax: 573-341-6157 Email: news@mst.edu

magazine.mst.edu

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Q&A Tell us about your charitable side

Miner alumni are a generous bunch. You share your time and treasure with all types of organizations that serve others in many ways. Many of you give back to your alma mater.

We asked what inspires you to give, and here is what you told us.

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he Boy Scouts of America is where a majority of my charitable time and money goes. I am a committee member and Life-to-Eagle Coordinator (I assist scouts with the work entailed to earn Eagle Scout) for a troop and a member of the Campmaster Corps (a group that assists troops with off-season camping at council camps). As an adult leader you always end up doing things outside the purview of your title and being a jack of all trades! After starting in Cub Scouts and going all the way to Eagle Scout I cannot think of anything else I would do!

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hen I retired from Eastman Chemical Co. in 2012, the pastor asked me to organize and be president of our parish conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the international benevolent organization. I used my engineering experience to organize the group, including the required record-keeping. During the past three years I have come to understand poverty in a completely different way. It is a complicated issue that can’t be fixed by “just working hard.”

We are working on many initiatives to bring about systemic change to go beyond shortterm financial help and provide permanent improvement in peoples’ standards of living. I have continued to be involved with the prolife ministry, and volunteer for the church maintenance committee and an annual teen ACTS retreat team. My wife, Jan, and I are members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, which provides financial support for the historic Christian sites and schools in the Holy Land.

Tom Mittler, CE’75 Longview, Texas

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give to Unity Church, the Missouri S&T Scholarship Fund, and Poplar Grove Vintage Wings and Wheels Museum Scholarship Fund.

The museum has a 12-acre campus. All buildings are pre-World War II and house bicycles, cars, trucks and planes from 1941 or older. Our mission is to preserve these antiquities and foster interest in our youth for aviation and automobiles.

May through October, we have monthly fundraising pancake breakfasts and give free plane rides to kids ages 8–17. We give scholarships toward aviation and automotive degrees or certificates.

Oh, by the way, I live here in the airport community — so I am able to live my volunteering passion.

Bill Moses, ME’59 Poplar Grove, Ill.

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am president of the board of directors of Sweetwater Mission, a charity that provides food, clothing, financial aid and educational opportunities to those in need in the south Cobb County, Georgia, area (a suburb of Atlanta). Our organization distributed over 1 million pounds of food in 2014. I also lead a church group that provides basic maintenance support to the Sweetwater Mission building.

n avid cycler, I ride in the annual 160-mile Tour de Cure to raise awareness and funds to support the American Diabetes Association. I have been involved with the North Carolina Tour de Cure since 2010, and in six years I’ve raised over $17,000 as an individual and over $22,000 as captain of the Oldcastle/Wheels of Stone team. I dedicated my first 80-mile ride to my mother and brother, who both live with diabetes.

After being a successful participant and fundraiser, I was invited to serve on the logistics committee and in 2013, Oldcastle honored me as an Outstanding Community Ambassador.

David J. Beem, Chem’75 Alpharetta, Ga.

Frank Werner, EMgt’80 Raleigh, N.C.

Drew Hayes, ArchE’11 Blue Springs, Mo.

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y wife and I spent five months in a rural Ugandan school where I taught fourthgrade science and my wife taught English. We also helped fund the school session in this very poor area.

In 2014, we spent four months in coastal Ecuador with the non-governmental organization Water Ecuador building water purification plants and testing water quality and water usage in six villages.

We spent six months in 2015 in The Cloud Forest School in Costa Rica. We gave money for school operations and I helped organize a 10k race though the forest trails, as well as general school campus ground work and environmental education classes for grades 1 to 11. My wife taught and assisted in numerous classes and organized the library for student use.

In November, we left for central Mexico to work again with the NGO Water Ecuador on a three-month water quality and water usage project.

The adventures have been and continue to be “an experience.”

Terry E. Durham, GGph’70 New Haven, Conn.

TO THE EDITOR Ladies and Gents, The Fall/Winter 2015 issue of Missouri S&T Magazine has now made a quantum jump in significance, importance and intelligent reporting about issues and topics relating to alumni contributions. Obviously many other topics aside from the great inventors need to be addressed but the inclusion of these several alumni inventors is a great step forward.

My suggestion is that the topical word “innovators” be the word to replace “inventors” since S&T/UMR/MSM alumni have made U.S., even world-class, contributions in other areas of importance, such as marketing, finance, management, military leadership, etc. Also you may want to consider the idea of replacing the R&D acronym in describing the activities that it now includes, but add an “I” for innovation since the latter word is becoming more widely used in industry, especially in the computer, information, agriculture and medical circles.

Perhaps you might consider this suggestion for future feature articles.

Jerry D. Plunkett, CerE’53, MS CerE’54 Dixon, Mo.

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TOPPING OUT On a chilly Monday in February, Missouri S&T placed the final piece of the roof on the new University Commons building on University Drive.

This fall, 450 students will move into its apartment-style housing. Watch a time-lapse video of the ceremonial “topping out� at rol.la/rooftimelapse.

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MISSOURI S&T’S 2016

Ten Miners will be recognized for their lasting impact on the university, their professions and the wider world when Missouri S&T hosts the 2016 Alumni of Influence Gala on Nov. 5. See the back cover for details. Congratulations to our 2016 honorees: Joe Ballard, MS EMgt’72, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and CEO of the Ravens Group Inc.

Bipin Doshi, MS ChE’63, president and CEO of Schafer Industries.

Bob Brackbill, MinE’42, an oil industry leader recognized for his contributions to offshore exploration, in particular the discovery of gas reserves in Thailand.

Don Gunther, CE’60, retired vice chairman and director of the Bechtel Group.

Bob Brinkmann, CE’71, founder and CEO of Brinkmann Constructors.

Sandra Magnus, Phys’86, MS EE’90, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a former NASA astronaut.

Matt Coco, CE’66, retired vice president of Alberici Corp.’s building division.

Dick Vitek, MS Chem’58, founder and retired CEO of Fotodyne Inc.

Roger Dorf, ME’65, retired general manager and vice president of the Broadband Wireless Group for Cisco Systems.

Roy Wilkens, EE’66, retired CEO of WilTel and McLeodUSA, and chairman and co-founder of Adaption Technologies.

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RECOVERING OIL WITH CO2 Traditional methods of oil recovery call for flooding well formations with water, but often as much as two-thirds of the oil is left behind through this process. Carbon dioxide is more efficient for oil recovery because it dissolves into oil and reduces its viscosity, but that approach also has problems.

For starters, formations are not uniform. Areas and layers that allow oil to pass through easily are interspersed with areas and layers that are less permeable. Injected CO2 flows through areas of high permeability but leaves a lot of oil unswept in areas of low permeability, says Baojun Bai, the Lester Birbeck Endowed Professor of Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering. The differences in viscosity between the injected CO2 and oil can cause the CO2 to seep through fingerlike channels in the formation; the carbon dioxide that’s produced reduces the efficiency of the greenhouse gas storage in formations.

Bai hopes to solve these problems by using small particle gels — ranging in size from a nanometer to a few millimeters — that can be stable under reservoir temperatures for more than a year.

“Injecting particle gels into CO2 flooding formations is a win-win method because particle gels can not only help increase oil recovery, but they also can help keep CO2 contained in the formation and thus increase greenhouse CO2 storage efficiency,” Bai says. “Storing the carbon dioxide underground is environmentally friendly because it keeps the gas out of the atmosphere.”

SAVE THE DATE

Make plans now to attend Homecoming 2016 Oct. 14–15. More details will be published in the Summer issue of Missouri S&T Magazine. For hotel information and other accommodations in the area, go to mineralumni.com/homecoming.

VOLCANO WARNING Much like National Weather Service sirens signal impending severe weather, so too may a similar system warn us before earthquakes strike or volcanoes erupt.

Using 1,700 seismographs spread across the lower 48 states, two S&T geophysicists are creating a sort of CT scan of the North American plate, which has been moving southwest at a rate of about an inch a year.

The shift is a continuation of the breaking of the giant supercontinent Pangea 200 million years ago, says Kelly Liu, professor of geophysics at Missouri S&T. As the plate moves, it creates earthquakes and volcanic hot spots, huge mountain chains and gigantic ocean basins.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, Liu and geophysics professor Stephen Gao are looking for azimuthal anisotropy along the path of a seismic wave. Seismic azimuthal anisotropy measurement is a powerful way to image the earth’s internal structural fabric. Their work could lay the foundation for predicting earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

IN PRINT Gerald Cohen, professor of foreign languages and an expert in etymology, published Origin of the Term ‘Jazz.’

Jonathan Finch, a lecturer in philosophy, published A Crisis of Belief, Ethics and Faith.

John C. McManus, Curators’ Professor of history and political science, published Hell Before Their Very Eyes: American Soldiers Liberate Concentration Camps in Germany, April 1945.

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IMAGING THE FINAL FRONTIER A Missouri S&T aerospace engineering professor is developing a microsatellite imager that could be used to check satellites, do small repairs or refuel spacecraft — and keep astronauts from making risky exploratory missions when something goes wrong.

Hank Pernicka, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and his students won the final round of an Air Force competition to develop the spacecraft. Kyle DeMars, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, Joshua Rovey, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Jonathan Kimball, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, also are working on the project at Missouri S&T. Pernicka and his team are working off their winning model and will build the spacecraft next year. Delivery to the Air Force is in the spring of 2017. And if all goes well, from there it’s launched to rendezvous with the International Space Station.

The spacecraft is composed of two microsatellites, with one docked to the other during the launch to the space station. After a space station arm flicks the craft away from it, the first test begins.

One satellite will push away from the other and use its 12 micro-thrusters to maintain a 10-meter distance between the two. If that’s successful, the first satellite then will begin to orbit the second, taking pictures of it with two stereoscopic lenses.

Aerospace engineering graduate students Yezad Anklesaria, AE’07, MS AE’09 (left), and Katelyn Boushon, AE’15 (center), are pictured in the lab with Hank Pernicka, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

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A 10-ACRE CLASSROOM

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outhwest of Rolla, 10 acres of land once farmed by some of the area’s earliest settlers is now being explored by pioneers of a different sort — Missouri S&T students.

Working with the Missouri Department of Conservation and the family of Dr. George Bohigian, a St. Louis ophthalmologist, Missouri S&T is turning the property into a field station that will become a living laboratory and classroom for students in a variety of majors.

“This field station idea goes hand in hand with the S&T concept of taking learning out of the classrooms and out of the labs and into the real world,” says Stephen Roberts, vice provost and dean for the College of Arts, Sciences, and Business.

Students who took Field Ecology, Cave Biology or Vegetation of the Ozarks courses last summer were among the first to study in and alongside three spring-fed ponds, a wetland fen, a nearby stream, and countless flora and fauna.

“This is a great learning opportunity,” says Dev Niyogi, an associate professor of biological sciences. “There are some subjects you just can’t learn in a lab, and field ecology is one of them.”

See more about the field station and experiential learning at rol.la/bohigian15

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CLEANING UP NUCLEAR WASTE … WITH GLASS

S&T STARGAZER

For the first time in over two years, S&T students, faculty and staff, and Rolla community members got an up-close look at celestial objects thanks to Ken Goss, a senior in computer science and computer engineering. Last August, Goss hosted the S&T Observatory’s first Visitors’ Night in over two years.

The physics department had been looking for someone to take over Visitors’ Nights since John Schmitt, associate professor emeritus of physics, retired in 2013. Schmitt taught astronomy and ran the observatory for decades.

Paul Parris, professor of physics, discovered that his neighbor who often stargazed from his front yard using a personal telescope was an S&T student. One night when Parris took his trash bin out to the curb, he approached his neighbor about the observatory.

Goss says he grew up with a “nascent interest” in astronomy. “I’d go out and look for different things at different times of the year.” He says his interest has grown in the last two or three years, since he bought a telescope — the same one

Parris saw him using. He now considers himself an amateur astronomer.

Before coming to S&T, Goss and his wife, Heather, both majored in music education. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and student-taught music in Missouri’s Kirkwood School District. Then the economic recession came, and the job market crashed.

Goss decided to go back to school at S&T to become a computer engineer. “I was afforded the opportunity to retool my skill set,” he says.

He never thought he would be running a university observatory.

“Few with my neophyte status have the privilege of handling a telescope this big, so I’m happy to serve the public,” he says.

Stored in steel drums and buried in mountainsides, nuclear waste can remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. Reducing the space needed to store the waste saves time and money and will reduce the overall environmental impact, says Richard Brow, Curators’ Professor of ceramic engineering.

With funding from the U.S. Office of Nuclear Energy, Brow is working to find a way to make the waste vitrify — or, turn into glass — more efficiently. Using surrogates in place of radioactive isotopes, Brow melts borosilicate glass (similar to the material Pyrex glassware is made from) and surrogates, looking for the sweet spot where a process known as phase separation and crystallization can capture the most waste in the smallest volume of a chemically stable glass. Reducing the volume could help address the nuclear waste storage problem.

Brow uses techniques developed in part by researchers in the Peaslee Steel Manufacturing Research Center at S&T. “To understand how fast these processes occur, we will quench the melts — probably from 1,450 degrees, Celsius — at different rates to freeze in different microstructures, ranging from phase-separated droplets, known as fast quench, to fully crystallized phases, or slow quench,” he says.

It’s all to get to the point where the borosilicate glass concentrates the radioactive components into micro-phases within the glass. And when that happens, the benefits will be substantial.

“We could possibly double our waste loading,” Brow says.

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TOTALLY TUBULAR No prior experience is necessary for students who compete in the annual inner tube water polo tournament in the Gale Bullman pool. Teamwork, creativity and improvisation are key for players as they have to learn how to navigate the pool and find the back of the net to score.

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HITTING THE SWEET SPOT “PROFESSIONAL GOLFERS MAKE A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THEIR YEARLY EARNINGS FROM SOURCES THAT ARE NOT TOURNAMENT PURSES.”

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hile some undergraduate students peer through microscopes or write computer programs for their research projects, senior Arielle Bodine made the world of professional golf her laboratory.

The applied math and economics double major recently took an eagle-eyed look at the factors that led Phil Mickelson and 46 other top professional golfers to pick up valuable endorsements.

“Professional golfers make a significant portion of their yearly earnings from sources that are not tournament purses,” says Bodine. “In fact, many golfers make more money from endorsements and off-course appearances than they do from golfing in tournaments.”

Previously published studies used statistics to link specific skills on the course with the amount of money that a golfer makes in tournament earnings. Bodine decided she wanted to discover if there was a connection between the skills displayed during a tournament and the player’s ability to earn money off the course.

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of the 31 golfers with earnings in 2013 earned more off-course money than on-course money

Average off-course earnings among studied golfers 2003–13

$6,335,852 Maximum off-course earnings in the study belonged to Phil Mickelson in 2013

$45,000,000 “My study took five aggregate statistics (scoring, putting, accuracy, short game and power) and attempted to link them with a specific dollar amount that they produce for a professional golfer off the course,” says Bodine.

For the past 12 years, Golf Digest has published its annual list of the sport’s top 50 earners. Bodine used the financial information from those lists and combined it with skill data from ShotLink for analysis using statistical software. Bodine says economics associate professor Michael Davis’s Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory class inspired her project.

“It took a lot of personal motivation to complete my project but I learned perseverance and to have pride in the work that I’ve done,” she says. “I also learned to ask for help — a skill that isn’t often taught in the classroom.”

In the end, Bodine found that golfers with higher accuracy and power were able to earn more off the course when scoring was not considered. She says that scoring was originally the only statistically significant skill, but removed it during a second run of the statistical model because scoring could be thought of as the result of other skills.

“It’s groundbreaking in the sense that no one has previously studied that connection,” she says. “When I ran the final analysis, I was sitting there and was almost in tears. It felt like it was a long and arduous process to get to that point, but it also was really awesome.”

SAVING THE BATS White-nose syndrome kills bats by the millions. If not stopped, it could disrupt an entire ecosystem. But a group of Missouri S&T students learned that a compound found in citrus fruit can slow the disease.

Caused by a fungus called Pseudogymnoascus destructans, white-nose syndrome strikes during bats’ winter hibernation when their immune systems are essentially dormant. Often it causes them to wake before spring arrives. If they wake early, many bats starve to death because their main food source, small flying insects like mosquitos, have not yet hatched.

Biological sciences students in Missouri S&T’s chapter of iGEM, the International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation, discovered that ocimene, a compound found in oranges, slows the growth of the fungus, and could help bats hibernate through the entire winter. Once they awaken, their immune systems can begin to combat the disease naturally.

The students, led by David Westenberg, associate professor of biological sciences, and Katie Shannon, associate teaching professor of biological sciences, won a bronze medal for their project, titled “Defending North American Bats from the Emerging White-nose Epidemic,” at the iGEM 2015 Giant Jamboree last fall.

IGNITING INNOVATION Over the course of their S&T career, graduating seniors Cori Hatley and Eric Fallon have learned a lot about entrepreneurship and innovation. But that wasn’t always the case. Like many of their fellow students, they were interested in these topics when they first arrived on campus, but they didn’t know how to find out about what resources were available.

So the pair took an entrepreneurial approach to solving this quandary. They put together a plan and pitched it to investors.

In this case, the plan was to create a resource for first-year students. The investors were the members of Missouri S&T’s Innovation Team, which provides university funding for various projects.

In the process, Hatley and Fallon were also applying lessons learned as University Innovation Fellows at Missouri S&T. The UIF program is a National Science Foundation initiative designed to help college students learn more about entrepreneurship and to bring that innovative spirit to their campuses. “It’s designed to train us to be change agents,” says Hatley, a senior in civil engineering.

This fall, Hatley and Fallon’s program, Ignite Innovation, will introduce incoming freshmen to the entrepreneurship resources available on campus, from design team and undergraduate research opportunities to clubs and coursework focused on innovation. “We’re not missing resources,” Hatley says. “It’s that people are not aware of the resources. So let’s start making these connections sooner rather than later so students can harness these resources right away.”

S&T also received funding last fall to create new courses designed to stimulate innovation. The grant comes from VentureWell, an organization that funds entrepreneurs as well as universities.

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ST. PAT’S: S&T GOES GREEN For a few days in March, the Missouri S&T campus — and the Rolla community — paint the town green for St. Pat’s.

If you couldn't make it back for the 108th St. Pat’s, here are a few scenes from this year’s Best Ever celebration.

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1. Despite the cloudy day, a large group of students gathered at the Puck for the first day of Follies.

2. During Follies, Jasmin Hill, a senior in chemical engineering from Rolla, displayed an impressive green beard.

3. Students drove all the rubber snakes off campus with their shillelaghs during Snake Invasion.

4. This year’s parade theme was “St. Pat goes to the movies.” Sigma Tau Gamma’s entry paid homage to Scooby Doo. 5. New to this year's St. Pat's was Gonzo Gives Back, a morning of community service held before Gonzo and Games. This group of students helped renovate the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center.

6. Miner alumni and friends gathered for breakfast and fellowship at Hasselmann Alumni House before the parade.

7 . Delbert Day, CerE’58, pictured during the breakfast at Hasselmann Alumni House.

8. Just before dawn on the day of the parade, St. Pat’s Committee members and alumni painted Pine Street green.

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CUSTOMIZING ENGLISH COMP

BAKING BRIDGES Kristen Donnell, MS EE’03, PhD EE’10, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Missouri S&T, is using microwave energy to test concrete and rehabilitated aluminum, and in the future her work could lead to safer bridges and aircraft parts.

Donnell studies those materials using an active microwave thermograph (AMT), a tool that highlights flaws that could compromise safety or effectiveness. It works by using microwave energy to heat a defined section of material, which is looked at using infrared thermography imaging.

This method of nondestructive testing (NDT) is fairly undeveloped, Donnell says, but is being pioneered at Missouri S&T. Donnell uses a 1- to 20-gigahertz high-frequency horn antenna to heat the objects, then views them with an infrared sensor that sends data to a computer.

Because the heat burst lasts only a few seconds, Donnell’s method reduces the risk of heat damage that can happen when using traditional flash heat lamps, and AMT is able to focus the heat at a predetermined depth instead of heating the whole object.

For example, when using a flash heat lamp to look at a problem in a wall, the whole wall would need to be heated; in contrast, the AMT method focuses heat on only a small section. It’s not exactly an X-ray, “but it does allow us to look inside the interior of a structure to show defects or problems,” Donnell says.

Using AMT in the lab, Donnell can set the system to focus on the middle of a 4-inch section of concrete. When the images are produced on a computer, they can show if the rebar is compromised (rusted, corroded, broken) or still in good working order. They also show cracks or other defects that could weaken it.

Donnell also can use AMT to look at materials that are wrapped in carbon fiber. The AMT can check the carbon fiber’s adhesion for areas that aren’t properly bonded. And Donnell can use the method to look at rehabilitated aluminum for weak spots.

Remember your English composition class?

Most likely, you had to choose a random theme, research your idea and write an analytical paper. Today, students in the newly redesigned Writing and Research course write on topics in their own field of study — topics that interest them.

Students investigate journals in their major and career field, learn the research conventions of those journals, discover the hot topics in their majors, and write for those journals — all in hopes of publishing their work.

“Focusing the class as a ‘writing in the disciplines’ course will make the students appreciate information literacy much more,” says Jossalyn Larson, assistant teaching professor in English and technical communication. “Because of the investigation skills being developed in the class, students are already beginning to consider non-traditional issues in their respective fields.”

“I have had a metallurgical engineering student write a paper about the viability of building metal spaceship parts while in the atmosphere, and an engineering management student examining best practices for leadership in the field,” says Dan Reardon, assistant professor of English and technical communication and director of composition at Missouri S&T. “The students are teaching us as well, allowing the English faculty to get a glimpse into what topics are really important to students.”

IN PRINT David Wright, associate professor of English and technical communication, edited a book titled Communication Practices in Engineering, Manufacturing, and Research for Food and Water Safety. The book includes a chapter by Wright titled “Cowboys and Computers: Communicating National Animal Identification in the Beef Industry.”

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HELLO [REAL] WORLD The first program a computer science student writes outputs the message “Hello world” on a display device. It’s designed to teach basic syntax for constructing a working program. Now finished with her degree, this computer science graduate, pictured during December 2015 commencement ceremonies, is ready for the “real” world.

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COMMENCEMENT STATS

517

Graduates during the morning commencement ceremony for graduate candidates and undergraduates in arts, sciences and business programs.

376 98 87 55 63

Graduates during the afternoon commencement ceremony for undergraduate engineering candidates.

Number of cum laude honors.

Number of magna cum laude honors.

Number of summa cum laude honors.

Number of degree programs with graduates.

A LIFE-CHANGING CAB RIDE One of the biggest moments of Tamerate Tadesse’s life came in a cab.

Tadesse, EE’15, a native of Ethiopia, took a job as an airport taxi cab driver after settling in the St. Louis area. His English was not very good, so he practiced by talking to his passengers.

“I like to talk to people, I like to ask questions,” he says. “I’d ask them, ‘How was your flight?’”

So began a conversation with Peter Desloge, chairman and CEO of Watlow Electric Manufacturing Co., whom Tadesse was driving to his Wildwood, Mo., home.

Desloge noticed Tadesse had rigged up his personal laptop to an old adapter to charge it while he was driving. “It was kind of noisy,” Tadesse says.

Intrigued, Desloge asked about Tadesse’s hobbies and his plans for the future. Tadesse, who was taking classes to learn English, shared that even as a child, he had always enjoyed fixing things, especially electronics.

“I encouraged him to think about engineering,” Desloge says. “I shared with him my experience as an engineer. I told him it is a great field because you will always be challenged and there will always be a demand for engineers.”

Before he got out of the car, Desloge handed Tadesse his business card and said, “Just give me a call whenever you can.”

The experience inspired Tadesse to continue his education. “Something clicked in my mind,” he says. “It was kind of a miracle for me.”

Now, some five years later, Tadesse still keeps Desloge’s business card in his wallet for good luck.

“I was pleased to find out that he took my advice,” Desloge says. “It reminds me that we all have a chance to have a positive impact on others every day of our lives — even in a brief encounter in a taxi.”

PARTNERS FOR PROGRESS Missouri S&T and Phelps County Regional Medical Center in Rolla are exchanging ideas and collaborating on research, education and technology transfer thanks to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) leaders from both groups signed last summer.

The MOU established an executive board and a research and education council made up of representatives from S&T and PCRMC. The partnership led to the creation of the Ozark Biomedical Initiative, which held its first research symposium in February.

This past fall, Missouri S&T signed a similar agreement with Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies. The agreement will let the two work more closely on research and development of new technology for national security.

In addition to research collaboration, the agreement allows for greater interaction between S&T faculty and students and Honeywell personnel, including the exchange of faculty, students and researchers.

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RUNNING HIS OWN RACE W

hen 400-meter hurdler Chayce Boyce steps up to the starting line during a track meet, he’s not thinking about the spectators in the stands or even the runners he is competing against. He’s focused only on running his own race.

“Just run your race; don’t focus on anyone else.” That mental mantra has gotten him through countless races. But Boyce says it’s not all a mental game — it’s a game of repetition.

“Repetition cuts down on errors,” says Boyce, a junior in engineering management from De Soto, Mo. “Depending on the hurdles, you can lose a race by one misstep, so I practice a lot to develop my technique.”

Boyce began running hurdles because his high school coach thought he might be good at it.

“My coach just kind of threw me in it because I was built for hurdles,” he says. “I was reluctant, but I discovered I was good at it and slowly I liked it more. I loved it even more when I won my first hurdling race.”

“JUST RUN YOUR RACE; DON’T FOCUS ON ANYONE ELSE.” And even though it’s hard work to improve and compete, Boyce says running track and hurdling offers him more than just physical fitness.

“Running around and being around the team gives me an outlet outside of the day-in and dayout rigors of schoolwork,” he says. “It’s relaxing and helps me to stay on top of things because it forces me to budget my time.”

Though running is an individual sport, Boyce loves being on the team and working on teams in general.

“Not one person on a team is the same,” he says. “It’s interesting to hear other views and learn about my teammates’ past to find a way to adapt and work with them best.”

As much as he enjoys teamwork, Boyce is still focused on running his own race.

“After graduation, I want to do something that gratifies me and that I feel is important,” he says. “I’m going to work wherever my degree takes me and I’m only focusing on reaching my own goals. I have to focus on me and what I want out of life.”

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MANISH SHARMA: WORKING TO ENJOY THE RIDE “I NEVER GAVE UP D BECAUSE I KNEW TOMORROW WOULD uring high school, Manish Sharma often studied by candlelight. Power outages lasting six to eight hours a day were a fixture of hometown life in Khurja, India. For most of his peers, studying in America was a distant dream. But Sharma never gave up on his goal.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from universities in India, Sharma set his sights on Missouri S&T to complete his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering.

“I never gave up because I knew tomorrow would be better,” he says. “I turned my plans into actions and went out of my comfort zone to make things happen.”

Sharma is working with Ayodeji Alajo, assistant professor of mining and nuclear engineering, and Hyoung K. Lee, associate professor of mining and nuclear engineering, on research related to proactive radiation detection at airports, borders and nuclear facilities.

“At a certain threshold, nuclear radiation like X-rays and gamma rays may negatively impact the health of living tissue, but current radiation-detection devices used by employees at nuclear facilities only detect doses that have already been absorbed in the employee’s body,” Sharma says. “My work will attempt to develop technology that is more proactive in detecting doses of radiation and will help the personnel to avoid radiation-prone areas, eventually resulting in less radiation exposure.”

Since he began work on his Ph.D. at Missouri S&T in 2011, Sharma has stepped even further out of his comfort zone. He was a lead counselor at S&T’s Jackling Introduction to Engineering summer camp, danced on the winning team at Celebration of Nations and learned to play the guitar.

“I follow a style of doing things where I choose one thing to do at a time and give 100 percent to that without focusing on the outcome,” Sharma says. “I put forth my best and focus on

BE BETTER.”

enjoying the ride. Dedication and determination to my work has made my experience great.”

After graduation, Sharma’s goal is to change the world by shaping the minds of students as a professor.

“So much of a country’s future development is primarily dependent on the youth,” he says. “As a professor, I want to bridge the gap between young, passionate youth and experienced researchers.”

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We are Missouri S&T students, alumni, faculty and staff.

We give back to the community, the university and the world.

We give our time, knowledge, support, spirit and more!

BY ANDREW CAREAGA, ACAREAGA@MST.EDU

Just as a stone tossed into a lake can create ripples that turn into waves, so too can a single, well-placed gift make an impact greater than its initial intent.

Consider the impact of a single donation from the V.H. McNutt Foundation. More than 30 years ago, the foundation, set up to manage the estate of mining entrepreneur Vachel H. McNutt, MinE 1910, MS MinE 1912, provided funds to support construction of V.H. McNutt Hall. The building project would bring Missouri S&T’s mineral science and engineering programs under one roof.

The dream of McNutt Hall became a reality in the mid-1980s. Gary Havener, Math’62, attended the dedication ceremony. Inspired by the magnificence of the new building, he was

also saddened that its namesake was not alive to see what his gift helped create. So Havener decided that he would make his gift while he was still around to see the impact. Some 20 years later, his donation for a student center on campus led to construction of the Havener Center, which today is a focal point for student and community activity.

Less than a decade later, the ripple gained momentum when James E. Bertelsmeyer, ChE’66, decided to donate funds toward construction of the new chemical and biochemical engineering building that bears

his name. During the dedication ceremony for Bertelsmeyer Hall in October 2014, Bertelsmeyer identified Havener as “my inspiration to make this contribution now rather than fund it in my will.”

Perhaps some graduate who heard Bertelsmeyer’s words during that ceremony will be the next to support a major campus project.

But Miners don’t need to name a building to have a big impact. Alumni across the globe are making a difference through their gifts of time, financial support or expertise. No matter the size of the gift or type of cause, Miners express their generosity in many ways.

They give to their communities and service clubs. They give to religious and charitable organizations. They give to offer hope to others.

Read on to learn about the impact of Miners who give, and the many ways their generosity has a ripple effect on the world around them.

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Miner Challenge Breaking the spring break stereotype

BY PETER EHRHARD, EHRHARDP@MST.EDU

M

iners give back in many ways.

Many of our students give back by participating in Miner Challenge, a week-long alternative spring break program. Miner Challenge gives students a chance to help individuals and communities affected by issues like poverty, a lack of access to education, homelessness and natural disasters. For 73 Missouri S&T students, their 2016 spring break took them to small, underprivileged areas in states like Kentucky and Louisiana instead of the typical South Padre Island or Fort Lauderdale party scenes.

return from “ ...thethesetripstudents looking at the world in a different way.”

Some students didn’t wait for spring break to make an impact. During winter break, a team traveled to Santa Julia, Nicaragua, through Panorama Service Expeditions.

The team worked to provide access to clean drinking water for the community.

“Our participants were impacted by the idea of privilege in immediate ways, such as the Nicaraguans’ work ethic and outlook on life,” says Miranda Cory, a junior in engineering management from Atchison, Kan., and the Miner Challenge peer involvement advisor. “In America if you ask a high school student what they want to be in the future, they’ll list an occupation, but in Nicaragua, the student will say something along the lines of ‘I want a job to support

my family.’ The education and opportunities that we receive are much different and more widespread than what is offered there.”

Miner Challenge participants become immersed in situations they might not otherwise encounter. By seeing how various people struggle in daily life and making a positive impact on those lives, Missouri S&T students learn valuable teamwork, leadership and communication skills.

“The trips are often a transformational learning experience for the students,” says Jessica Haywood, student service coordinator in the department of student life and Miner Challenge manager. “A lot of times the trips are the first time students see real poverty or homelessness. It is not just a ‘Hey, let’s go volunteer for a short while’ type of involvement; these students return from the trip looking at the world in a different way.”

During the recent spring break, student volunteers traveled to five different locations in teams of 11 to 16, along with a Missouri S&T staff member acting as trip advisor.

A team in Montgomery, Ala., helped construct houses for struggling families and volunteered at an after-school program.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., a team worked with the Care and Share Food Bank to provide meals for those in need. The team in Hammond, La., partnered with the Ginger Ford Fuller Center to improve local housing.

In Harden County, Tenn., a team helped socialize rescue dogs and cleaned hiking trails at Horse Creek Wildlife Sanctuary and Animal Refuge. And in Harlan, Ky., a team built and distributed dog houses made from scrap to local homeowners.

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Miner Challenge roadmap

2015: Worked with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina in Hattiesburg, Miss.

2016 2015 2014 2012-2013 2010-2011 2008-2009

For a complete list of Miner Challenge locations go to magazine.mst.edu.

2015: Volunteered at a local women’s cooperative to teach sound financial practices and assisted with crop and fertilizer production in Santa Julia, Nicaragua.

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Miner Challenge by the numbers

1,300

Pounds of cookie dough made for the fall fundraiser

2015: Built homes with Habitat for Humanity and worked at a local food bank in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Majors represented by Miner Challenge participants

A history of service

No such thing as a free lunch

Miner Challenge began in 2008, with a small team of students traveling to Boone, N.C., to work with two organizations during spring break. Western Youth Network, a group dedicated to bettering the lives of children and youths in the local North Carolina communities through education and role models, and Habitat for Humanity, an organization devoted to building “simple, decent and affordable” housing for those in need, were the first two partners with Miner Challenge.

The team’s trips are all paid for entirely by participant fundraising. Miner Challenge members sell cookie dough in the fall and chocolate-covered strawberries in the spring and hold letter-writing campaigns and crowdfunding to raise the necessary funds to travel.

Each student in the organization develops leadership skills while working on various jobs throughout the months leading up to the trips.

“

Today’s students need to see that they can have an immediate impact on a community.”

In 2014, a team traveled outside the country for the first time in the program’s history. A team went to Jinotega, Nicaragua, to help improve young students’ English, mathematics, science and vocational skills.

“Today’s students need to see that they can have an immediate impact on a community,” says John Gallagher, director of student life.

“These trips can ‘flip a switch’ and really change their perspectives. I went on the Detroit trip last year, and it was amazing to see these students stepping up and learning to lead others.”

The team members also help the local Rolla community. Miner Challenge participants have volunteered at the Russell House, a home for victims of domestic violence, and the Rolla Animal Shelter and even baked cookies for the local fire department.

“One of the best parts of my job is seeing how the trip teams really come together and how the trip leaders grow to take on more and more responsibility,” says Cory. “This was my third year traveling and volunteering as part of Miner Challenge, which has let me see that no matter how small of an impact you have on the community, each little bit stacks up and helps people.” 

Interested in helping support the students?

23

2,862

Miles the Nicaragua team would travel if they drove to Santa Julia instead of flying Freshmen participating in 2016 Miner Challenge

500

in number % Increase of trips offered as compared to 2008

First-time Miner Challenge participants in 2016

400

$

24

51

Cost to rent one van for a team’s domestic travel

Students who applied to join 2016 Miner Challenge

88

Visit the Miner Challenge website at minerchallenge.mst.edu or email stulife@mst.edu.

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NICK

MCGRAW

Volunteering, one subscriber at a time

BY ARIELLE BODINE, NEWS@MST.EDU

When Nick McGraw, EMgt’15, launched his YouTube channel, Nick’s Perspective, he pledged to do one hour of community service for each subscriber to his channel.

Over the next six months, McGraw completed hundreds of service hours — all while producing more videos, many of which focus on volunteerism.

“I make a video every day about something that’s important to me,” he says.

“The goal of every video I make is to allow anyone to feel like they were actually there and hopefully inspire them to try out an event on their own.”

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“ Theinspiregoalandis torecruit others to make videos about their volunteer efforts.”

Top: Nick McGraw carries a box of clothes and toys to a family’s car outside of The Dance Studio in Rolla after the family picked out community-donated items for holiday gifts. Bottom: Following an interview with Kathy Heflin and Mary Beth Myers about their work as volunteers, McGraw joins them in front of the camera for the conclusion of his video.

McGraw, who had spent over 400 hours doing service prior to his YouTube commitment, decided to intertwine his volunteer activities with his love of video production.

“Originally, I saw my service and my YouTube channel as two separate endeavors,” he says.

“I decided to merge them because the more relevant helping others and spreading positivity is to the viewers, the more likely someone is to do it.”

McGraw has given back to his community through countless service events, from working with Habitat for Humanity to cleaning city parks.

But his favorite service activities are the ones where he gets to interact with strangers.

“Being able to tell a stranger that whatever they’re going through will be okay can make a huge difference,” he says. “Helping others and spreading positivity is addicting.”

Since there may come a time when McGraw can’t keep up with the number of subscribers, he says he has a bigger plan.

“I will never stop my volunteering efforts, but there is no limit to the possible subscribers the channel could gain,” he says. “Given my lack of immortality, the goal is to inspire and recruit others to make videos about their volunteer efforts.”

Check out Nick’s YouTube channel at rol.la/NicksPerspective. 

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ERIC

POTTS

Urban cowboy

BY MARIDEL ALLINDER, ALLINDERM@MST.EDU

Photo by Eric Kayne

“ Theshowlivestock E and rodeo is a whole bunch of things, but at the end of the day, it’s about education.”

ric Potts, CE’73, calls himself an urban cowboy. The Texas transplant and retired Army colonel has lived all over the world.

But it wasn’t until he landed in the Lone Star State that he learned to tell an Angus from a Charolais.

He owes it all to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

After retiring in 2000 from a distinguished military career, Potts became deputy director of aviation for the City of Houston. He credits his boss with involving him in Houston’s biggest annual event — a 20-day extravaganza featuring the world’s largest livestock show, a rodeo competition, star-studded concerts and more.

“He thought I’d be good at it, so I gave it a shot,” says Potts. “I’ve learned more about cattle than I ever imagined.”

For the past decade, Potts has served on the show’s steer auction committee. This marks his second year to chair the 200-person committee.

“Last year the steer auction raised $5.6 million,” says Potts. “Our grand champion junior market steer sold for $300,000. Proceeds support scholarships, so we touch a lot of young people’s lives.”

Founded in 1932, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has committed more than $400 million to scholarships and educational programs. More than 2,200 students currently attend 80 Texas colleges and universities on show scholarships.

“The livestock show and rodeo is a whole bunch of things, but at the end of the day, it’s about education,” says Potts, who also champions Missouri S&T as a member of the Academy of Civil Engineers and Academy of Miner Athletics. He and his wife, Inge, are generous supporters of the civil engineering program, alumni association and Miner athletics.

Today, as account director for Freese and Nichols, Potts spends a great deal of time in client meetings. But for three weeks every March, in keeping with the company’s tradition of community support, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo takes over this executive’s life — and a big cowboy hat becomes mandatory attire.

“After 27 years of moving every two or three years in the Army, I landed in Texas,” says the St. Louis native. “It’s the longest I’ve been in one place. I would call this home.”

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CAILEY

BAKER

Catching Miners

BY MARY HELEN STOLTZ, MHSTOLTZ@MST.EDU

Miner softball catcher Cailey Baker loves the excitement of playing behind the plate.

“It’s an adrenaline rush seeing a girl coming straight at you and knowing you have to tag her out or she’ll score,” Baker says.

She also loves the challenge of reading a batter, evaluating her strengths and weaknesses, and calling for just the right pitch.

She says her job as a student development officer works much the same way.

“Just like picking a pitch as the batter approaches the plate, when I call an alumnus for the first time, I have to decide the right thing to say while the phone rings,” Baker explains.

“Sometimes I just ask them how their day is going.

Other times I thank them for a recent gift. My goal is to connect with alumni on a personal level.”

Building that connection, particularly with donors, is the reason the Student Development Officer Program was founded.

“The Student DO Program is mainly about donor satisfaction,” says Rob Ruchotzke, an annual giving officer in university advancement. “We want to ensure that our alumni, family and friends are appreciated and that their voices are heard. Our student DOs do that and more through their outreach.”

Baker says she loves getting to know Miner alumni.

“Our alumni always say they want to hear what students have to say, and they love to share their stories,” she says. “It’s really rewarding.”

Although she does occasionally reach unhappy people who think she’s just another telemarketer, Baker says she takes it all in stride. She apologizes for the inconvenience and thanks them for their time. Often, she turns the conversation around.

“Once they realize I’m genuinely interested in getting to know them, not just asking for money, it changes,” she says. “Those are the moments I live for.”

Cailey Baker recruits students to work with the Miner Phonathon during an event in the Hasselmann Alumni House.

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SEAN

CHENG

Booming biotechnology

BY PETER EHRHARD, EHRHARDP@MST.EDU

Photo by Genevieve Shiffrar

s the reason “ That’ why I wanted to set T up the scholarship, to encourage and inspire students to think wildly and create new things.”

o support students in biotechnology and give back to the mentor who had helped guide his academic career, Xiaoliang “Sean” Cheng, PhD Chem’10, recently founded a scholarship for chemistry or biology students who partner with faculty on research conducted in the Center for Single Nanoparticle, Single Cell and Single Molecule Monitoring at S&T. Cheng says he wanted to help support students who conduct research at the center, which was established by Yinfa Ma, Curators’ Teaching Professor of chemistry and associate dean of research for the College of Arts, Sciences, and Business. Ma was Cheng’s research advisor at S&T. “Since switching from being a student to a technology company founder, I have learned that technology begins with the innovative ideas that come from learning,” says Cheng.

“That’s the reason why I wanted to set up the scholarship, to encourage and inspire students to think wildly and create new things.”

A self-described serial entrepreneur, Cheng started thinking of ideas for new

companies before he had even graduated from Missouri S&T. So far, he has helped found CZ Technologies, Neo-Leaf Technology, Clingnenomix and Wuhan Quality Life Technology, and partnered at a private angel investor venture that provides capital to earlyand growth-stage life science companies.

“Having previous experience in building and developing companies really helps when looking to found a new one,” says Cheng, who also serves as an adjunct professor of chemistry at Missouri S&T. “Unique ideas always seem to spark starting a company, and I have been lucky to always find the right team to help grow an idea into a reality.”

Cheng’s latest venture is QL Tech, a microbial bioreactor engineering and discovery technologies company he co-founded in 2013. He serves as CEO of the company. Its headquarters are in Wuhan, China, but it has a division in the Silicon Valley, where Cheng and his wife, Lin Zhu, MS IST’09, live.

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APRIL:

BY ARIELLE BODINE, NEWS@MST.EDU

A month of thanks at S&T

During Philanthropy Month 2015, T-shirts and tags bearing the message “Made possible thanks to our generous donors” could be spotted across campus.

Philanthropy Month at Missouri S&T celebrates giving, progress and the philanthropic spirit.

During the month of April, students, faculty and staff take the time to thank donors and volunteers for their generosity. But it’s more than that. Philanthropy Month is designed to raise awareness about the power of giving at S&T. “We want current students to understand that philanthropy is rooted in helping other people,” says Katie Jackson, assistant director of the Miner Alumni Association and an organizer of Philanthropy Month. “So, activities during the month also focus on reaching out to students as well as those in need.”

All month, Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow (STAT) is partnering with Blue Key

Honor Society to raise money for Spirit of Change. Spirit of Change provides funds for student support and random acts of kindness around campus. In the past, Spirit of Change has awarded a $500 book scholarship, and students involved in the effort have handed out free umbrellas on rainy days and added change to expired parking meters on campus.

Organizers will staff a movable booth during April for students, faculty and staff to make donations to the program. Donations of over $5 will be matched dollar for dollar by the university. Look inside the front cover of this issue to see how you can help.

Green tags bearing the message “We Give Because We’re Miners” will be placed on equipment, buildings and offices that were funded in some part by charitable gifts.

University personnel will hand out T-shirts with that same message to students and then perform random acts of kindness by passing out gift cards to students spotted wearing the shirt.

STAT will also host a month-long scavenger hunt as part of Philanthropy Month. Members will release philanthropy-related clues each week for students to search for on campus.

Through Philanthropy Month events, organizers and participants alike see firsthand the giving spirit that unites Miners.

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Academies in action: answering the call to lead and serve

“ Academy members are a passionate force for positive change. Their work goes well beyond financial support.”

They are trusted advisors and true believers, stakeholders and sounding boards, investors and advocates — and most of all proud Miners.

Who are these champions? They’re members of Missouri S&T’s eight academies, and they’re using their superpowers to make a difference.

“Academy members are a passionate force for positive change,” says Joan Nesbitt, vice chancellor for university advancement. “Their work goes well beyond financial support. As industry leaders, they advance the university’s strategic plan by serving as an invaluable sounding board for academic departments and their faculty and students.”

Whether they are advising department chairs, visiting classes as guest speakers, fundraising for priority projects, cheering for studentathletes or endowing scholarships, academy members personify Miner pride in action — and the power of partnership.

“They are hardworking champions who wear many hats,” says Lea-Ann Morton, assistant vice chancellor for university advancement. “They bring expertise and vision to the departments they serve. I’ve never seen anything quite like academies at other universities. They are more than honorary or donor groups. Academy members are engaged at a very personal level.”

Here’s an overview of Missouri S&T’s eight academies and how they are answering the call to lead and serve.

Academy of Chemical Engineers FOUNDED: 1996 A 68,500-square-foot testament to the dedication of this academy stands at 11th and State streets: James E. Bertelsmeyer Hall.

Academy members were instrumental to raising the roof on this $22.3 million facility with contributions totaling $7.5 million. They also champion research and experiential learning through their support of graduate teaching assistantships and the Chem-E-Car team. You’ll find academy members mentoring students, hiring graduates and advising the department on everything from accreditation to technology transfer.

Academy of Civil Engineers FOUNDED: 1972

Bertelsmeyer Hall, dedicated Oct. 17, 2014.

The members of Missouri S&T’s oldest academy have been building bright futures for more than 40 years. From high-bay and hydraulics labs to advanced construction materials testing, academy members have kept the department at the leading edge of experiential learning, research and technology transfer. Academy members were instrumental supporters of the $22 million, 143-square-foot addition to Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Hall in 2003.

They were also visionary contributors to the 23,000-square-foot Student Design and Experiential Learning Center dedicated in 2011.

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never seen “ I’veanything quite like academies at other universities. They are more than honorary or donor groups.”

Upper: The purple glow emanating from the roof of Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Hall comes from specially designed red and blue LED lights that promote and optimize plant growth in the Baker Greenhouse. Academy of Civil Engineers members helped fund the building’s renovation in 2003.

Lower: Emotive bioinformatics company founder and CEO Tan Le gave the keynote address during the Golden Jubilee, which the Academy of Computer Science helped organize.

Academy of Computer Science FOUNDED: 2003 Making history at the frontier of a technological revolution takes vision. Although the academy didn’t exist 50 years ago when the computer science department was founded, members stepped forward in October 2015 to make the department’s Golden Jubilee a landmark event. Academy members are also advisors and industry partners committed to advancing computing and other technologies through interdisciplinary research hubs such as Missouri S&T’s Smart Living signature area.

Academy of Electrical and Computer Engineering FOUNDED: 1980 Academy members have provided wisdom and leadership for more than three decades. In 2013, they embraced Missouri S&T’s “20/20 Challenge”

by leveraging state matching funds with private contributions to endow needs-based scholarships. The academy established two new scholarships, adding to a legacy that already includes a number of endowed scholarships and a lab equipment fund. Members also advise the department on curriculum and experiential learning opportunities, now a university requirement for all undergraduates.

Academy of Engineering Management FOUNDED: 2005 Following a 2009 brainstorming session on how to make a bigger difference, this academy established a formal mentoring program.

Today, approximately 20 academy members are partnered with students seeking professional perspective. Academy members also have established scholarship endowments, including a needs-based scholarship funded in response

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to S&T’s “20/20 Challenge.” They continue to serve as guest lecturers, assist the department with accreditation — and raise awareness of the business side of engineering.

Academy of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers FOUNDED: 1995 Strengthening experiential learning has been a priority for this academy since its inception.

Toomey Hall’s exceptional labs are a testament to that. Academy members were instrumental to the construction of the Fluid Dynamics, Gas Turbine, and Dynamics and Control labs. This year, construction on a Kinematics, Kinetics and Power of Mechanical Systems lab began with funding from Nucor-Yamato Steel Co. The academy also supports scholarships, graduate teaching awards – and innovation. Every year, student design teams are invited to present proposals in a competition for funding.

Academy of Miner Athletics FOUNDED: 2011 Whether they are cheering for student-athletes in competition or the classroom, there is no more dedicated group of supporters. These

former Miner athletes serve as advisors to the athletic director and mentors to studentathletes. Their generosity impacts every area of the department, from scholarships to equipment. Academy members also have helped to fund many enhancements in the Gale Bullman Building, including renovations to the room used for team meetings, film reviews and study halls.

Academy of Mines and Metallurgy FOUNDED: 1995 From explosives camps and geologic field studies to irradiation research, academy members are making a difference. They serve as advisors to three departments: materials science and engineering, mining and nuclear engineering, and geosciences and geological and petroleum engineering. They encourage future Miners by supporting summer programs for high school students. They award scholarships to students selected by their peers.

They fund faculty awards recognizing earlycareer and senior scholars. And more than a few have ventured into the Haunted Mine to support this popular Halloween fundraiser benefitting student organizations. 

Upper: The Academy of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers helps fund student design projects, like the racecars built by the S&T Formula Car Team. Lower: Miner athletes now have a comfortable, well-equipped classroom for team meetings, thanks to support from the Academy of Miner Athletics.

DeWayne Phelps (center), senior lab mechanic in mining and nuclear engineering, supervises students as they set up an explosive device at the Experimental Mine during the explosives summer camp.

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A network of connection

Getting involved with S&T after graduation is more than serving on a committee. In fact, it can be just about anything you make it. From attending sporting events and talking with potential students to serving on the Miner Alumni Association Board of Directors, staying connected after graduation isn’t difficult. Here are some of the ways you can get involved and stay involved.

Get involved!

Are you more formal or casual?

I’m pretty casual

I can do formal

How do you feel about public speaking?

I don’t like to brag but I’m pretty good

Speak on campus

mineralumni.com/minerspeak

Meh

I love to chat. I could chat all day long about anything and everything.

Go Miners!

Contact Larissa Winstead at winsteadlb@mst.edu

Show your pride

How about sports?

Ehh, not my thing

Read Missouri S&T Magazine and send in updates for Class Notes Read your department newsletter and update information online

What is your thing?

Invest in athletics or attend an event Just chillin’

mineralumni.com/rally

I’m not sure

Attend section events near you

What’s next?

Tell neighbors with high schoolers about S&T

I want to do more!

Become an Alumni Admissions Ambassador and help recruit prospective S&T students in your community.

Become a Public Resource Ambassador and promote the value of public higher education to legislators in Missouri

Nah

Donate to Missouri S&T

From crowdfunding to phonathon, your support helps us lead in research, hire exceptional faculty and provide scholarships

Do you like to chat?

Visit mineralumni.com/findyoursection or contact Travis Sewell at sewelltd@mst.edu

Wear S&T merchandise

Get elected to the Miner Alumni Association Board of Directors

Become an officer in one of the 50-plus sections where alumni gather across the country

I have more to offer!

Serve as the eyes and ears of our nearly 60,000 alumni. The Miner Alumni Association operates under their advisement. Find your area director at mineralumni.com/boardofdirectors

MISSOURI S&T MAGAZINE 33

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COME

TOGETHER

With over 50 sections across the country, you have an abundance of opportunities to expand your professional and social circle in 2016.

From sporting events to St. Pat’s festivities, Miners like you get together year round to connect and play. Don’t miss out on the fun. Check out the events calendar at mineralumni.com.

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD Your opinion matters to the Miner Alumni Association, which represents nearly 60,000 alumni. If you have comments, questions or ideas, please share them with your elected representatives listed below.

PRESIDENT

AREA DIRECTORS

Richard W. Eimer Jr. ’71

Area 1: Douglas Marquart ’82

PRESIDENT-ELECT Helene Hardy Pierce ’83 VICE PRESIDENTS Ernest K. Banks ’81 Delores Hinkle ’75 Ronald W. Jagels ’86 Mike McEvilly ’80 Chris Ramsay ’83 Stephen W. Rector ’72 TREASURER W. Keith Wedge ’70 SECRETARY Bill Brune ’75

Area 2: Stephen Schrock ’11 Area 3: Daniel Ryan ’12 Area 4: Steven R. Frey Jr. ’86 Area 5: Dawn Stufft ’99 Area 6: Gary Hines ’95 Area 7: Bernard Held ’75 Area 8: Richard Berning ’69 Area 9: Michael Gross ’88 Areas 10–18: Elizabeth Baumbach ’90 Michael Busby ’78 Alan Erickson ’75 Russell Goldammer ’78 Rachel Jung ’09 Jeremiah King ’06

DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE

William McAllister III ’76

Robert “R.J.” Agee ’03

Carl Schmitz ’10

Tessa C. Baughman ’04

Stephen Squibb ’98

Preston Carney ’02

Area 19: Daniel Bailey ’03

Michael Emanuel ’87

Area 20: John Campbell ’74

Kurt Haslag ’07

Area 21: Hugh Cole ’72

Darrin Talley ’88

Area 22: Kimberly Morrison ’96 Area 23: Dennis Leitterman ’76 Area 24: David Heineck ’79

To contact your representatives, go to mineralumni.com.

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Photo by stevejonesphoto.com

NEW ALUMNI N

ew alumni just out of school are focused on starting careers and getting established in a new community. And sometimes that community is a long way from home and campus. But just because you aren’t in Rolla doesn’t mean you have to lose touch.

The Miner Alumni Association created the New Alumni Council to represent the needs of recent Missouri S&T graduates.

“I remember when I first moved to Memphis,” says Danny Ryan, ME’12, director of education for Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity and member of the New Alumni Council. “Not only did I not know anyone but I also had no clue where to go or what to do. Things just weren’t the same as they were in Rolla. Connecting with other new alumni helped me adapt to life in my new city and allowed me to make some great new friends who totally understood the transition from my quirky life in Rolla.”

Ryan says that because of the heavy career focus, many recent graduates don’t seek out alumni activities until they are more established in their careers — sometimes 20 or 30 years out.

WE ARE YOU! “New alumni don’t really have a lot of time or money so we feel as though we don’t have a reason to ‘give back’ or re-engage with S&T, especially since we are just starting our careers,” Ryan says. “New alumni still need a way to stay engaged, though, and the New Alumni Council works to make sure that can happen.”

Ryan says it’s easy to get involved.

“Connect with other alumni in your area,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be a big, formal event. It can be three or four people watching a sporting event or going out to eat — anything you like to do. If you don’t know anyone in your area, reach out to the alumni office, or engage with us via social media. We can help you connect with other alumni in your area.

“Other alumni want to connect with you, trust me,” Ryan says. “There are plenty of great things going on with Miners all over and we want to know.”

Connect with the Miner Alumni Association on Facebook (facebook.com/MinerAlumni) or Twitter (@MinerAlumni).

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CLASS NOTES GRAD THIRD WOMAN TO EARN RANGER TAB

Photo by Branden Camp, Associated Press

Missouri S&T alumna Lisa Peplinski Jaster, CE’04, has completed what few men and even fewer women have — the U.S. Army Ranger School.

Jaster, 37, a 2000 West Point graduate, is a major in the Army as a reservist and the third woman to pass the course. She is the mother of a 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.

“There is no quitting,” Jaster told the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer. “I can’t have quit in me. So, there was never an option to stop. There was never an option to quit.”

The course is the Army’s premier combat leadership course, teaching Ranger students how to overcome fatigue, hunger and stress to lead soldiers during small-unit combat operations. During the course, which forces participants to operate on little food and sleep, students learn to operate in woodland, mountain and costal swamp terrain.

A graduation ceremony was held Oct. 16 at Victory Pond for Jaster and the other soldiers who earned their Ranger tabs.

“Once you get in the field and once you start training shoulder to shoulder, gender stops mattering very quickly,” Jaster says.

Share a Class Note

Publication Policy

Let your classmates know what you’ve been doing. Send us information about your professional and personal accomplishments — career changes or promotions, weddings, births and other news — and we will publish it in an upcoming issue. Email your update and a high-resolution photo (if available) to alumni@mst.edu.

We publish information submitted by alumni, news submitted by employers of alumni, and selected news stories that mention alumni and their affiliation with Missouri S&T. We are happy to announce weddings, births, promotions and other special occasions after they have occurred. We will print addresses if specifically requested to do so by the alumnus/alumna submitting the note and will mention a spouse’s name if it is specifically included in the submission. We reserve the right to edit alumni notes and will use submitted printquality photos as space permits. Due to the production time required for each issue, submissions may take up to six months to appear. Your patience is appreciated.

Deadline: Fall/Winter issue — July 15

1947

1951

Richard E. Cole, MetE, belongs to the alumni associations at the South Dakota School of Mines, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and “of course Missouri University of Science and Technology, although I still say the Missouri School of Mines.” He turned 97 in October, and “not many of my associates are still with us. I will continue to support the Miner Alumni Association as long as I’m around.”

Gerald B. Bellis, CE, and his wife, Mary, celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary in September.

1948 Robert Rock, MetE, is “alive and reasonably well at 93.” In 2014 he received an allexpenses-paid trip to Okinawa, Japan, to represent American veterans as part of the World War II liberation of the island. “It was very fulfilling,” he says.

1950 Donald A. Wunnenberg, ME, is living in a retirement community in Zelienople, Pa., with his wife, Betty. “Hello to all ’50 grads,” he says.

for St. Pat’s weekend 2015 and the grand opening of Hasselmann Alumni House. “It was a wonderful experience.”

1954

Earl Jackson, MinE: “At 88 years of age, we have slowed but are still able to travel and enjoy seeing new places. We noticed many changes in the foreign countries where we worked for 30 years — mostly improvements.”

James A. Gerard, CE, and his wife, Nancy, are doing well in sunny Florida. “I hope to be around for the 110year Pi Kappa Alpha anniversary,” he says.

John Griffin, CE, reports that he and his wife, Joan, are still enjoying life and 55 years of marriage in West Chester, Pa. “However, my legs limit my ease of mobility, and I may not attend homecoming.”

Campell C. Barnds III, EE, reports that seven Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity members met in September 2014 in Branson to celebrate 60 years together.

Other members attending were Richard Berg, PetE’55; Jim Franklin, PetE’55; Ray Pfaff, PetE’55; Don Pickering, GGph’55; Harvey Schulte, ChE’55; and Robert Winchester, PetE’55.

1952 Robert F. Uthoff, MinE, relocated to Taylorville, Ill. “Life here is slower and more in line with my physical abilities,” he says. “However, it’s better than the other alternative!”

1953 Bill Patterson, PetE, and his wife, June, traveled from San Antonio, Texas, to Rolla

1955

1957 Waymon L. Johnston, ME, celebrated his 80th birthday with his wife, Taune, on the beaches of St. Marten. “And, yes, I am still working, investigating accidents,” he says.

Donn Ziebell, MetE, authored and published a new book, Conceal Carry; Pause: The Pursuit of Trained Readiness with a Goal to Avoid a 3-Second-Long Gun Fight, that was released on Amazon in January 2015.

1958 Eugene R. Russell Sr., CE: “I’m finally totally retired.”

Royce M. Scott Jr., ChE, reports that after 23 years of retirement, he and his wife, Suzanne, “remain very active with travel, church and friends.”

1960 Hossein R. Keshari, ChE: “After 55 years, I still cannot get used to calling my school any other name than University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy. Well, nothing stays the same.

We move on and thank God for the opportunity to attend Missouri Mines in Rolla, Mo.” Paul B. Medley II, EE, is enjoying 20 years of retirement thanks to boom times in the ’60s,

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fewer deadlines,” he says. “Travel and volunteering has provided us a great retirement job, and engineering provided a good life. I still believe that my ME from MSM (as it was called then) was as good as any I could have gotten.

It served me well.”

Charles “Al” Wentz Jr., ChE’57, MS ChE’59, and his wife, Joan, took a three-week cruise and land tour on Holland America to Alaska and the Yukon, Canada. “We had beautiful weather and superb cuisine while we viewed the magnificent scenery of Denali, Fairbanks and historic gold fields of the Yukon. It was truly a memorable experience,” Wentz says.

The Wentzes hosted the 13th annual Grains and Grapes BBQ for Pi Kappa Alpha alumni on Sept. 13, 2015, in Edwardsville, Ill. Alumni from Illinois, Beta Eta and Alpha Kappa from Missouri S&T attended.

’70s and ’80s — “and my decision to attend MSM in 1956.” In a 14-year hobby of two-wheel riding, he has covered 307,000 miles of mostly east Tennessee country roads.

1961 James R. Hague, CerE: “My wife, Mary, passed away on Jan. 5, 2015, leaving a giant void in my life. She truly did ‘put hubby through school’ and was a loving wife and mother for 57 years. Everyone should be so fortunate.”

David Maune, ME, was appointed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hydrographic Services Review Panel.

Maune is a senior project manager with Dewberry’s geospatial group.

Robert Saxer, CE, MS CE’62:

“Missouri S&T has very good alumni publications. Thanks!”

1962 Daniel S. Gnanamuthu, MetE, and his wife, Sarah, are retired but involved in their church Bible study and visit India every year. “We would like to meet our friends from the early 1960s from Rolla,” he writes. “They are welcome to our home.”

Gaynol D. “Moe” Greenwood, ME, took early retirement from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville as director of facilities planning in 1995. He operates MoeFaye Travel Inc., organizing and conducting trips for senior citizens in Knoxville, Tenn. “After practicing engineering for 33 years, I decided to hang it up and get into something with

1964 Ken Wulfert Jr., ChE, has retired for the second time. After retiring from Monsanto Co. in 1998, he formed a consulting firm serving the global inorganic chemical industry. In 2014 he retired from consulting, and now he enjoys traveling with his wife, Caroline, and his three granddaughters. He winters in Naples, Fla., and gets back to Rolla whenever possible.

1965 Garry Bennett, Chem, MS Chem’69, has been retired from Baker Petrolite for 12 years and now is president of Pawnee County Economic Development Foundation in Cleveland, Okla. Nine years ago, Bennett and his wife, Norma, helped establish the WestportKeystone Peninsula Seniors Association.

He is the organization’s secretary, and Norma is the treasurer.

Allen Driemeier, CE: “My wife, Linda, passed away on Aug. 14, 2014.”

Charles J. Vincent, CE, reports that he has made his last move to live with his daughter in Gulfport, Miss.

Lawrence K. Wang, CE, has had 131 academic works in 487 publications and

11,003 university library holdings around the world since he graduated from Missouri S&T.

1966 Arthur Simmons, ME, was named to the board of directors when Portex Minerals and Bassett Financial Corp. acquired Direct Metals Recycling in July 2015. Simmons will be based in Atlanta and work with processing platinum grade metals.

In 1994, Simmons founded Astechnologies Inc., a pioneer in thermoplastic composites used in the auto industry and others. He served on trade delegations to the Soviet Union in the ’70s, and to China and India in the ’80s and ’90s.

NASA CAREER REWARDING FOR LEUCHT

1970

Clark D. Mikkelsen, ME’70, retired after 36-plus years with the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center — and its forerunners — in Redstone Arsenal, Ala. He has since packed up and moved to the big sky country of Colorado.

1971 Dale Gunter, CE, MS CE’77, was elected president of the Association of Conservation Engineers for 2015–16.

He is the chief of

Kurt W. Leucht, EE’94, has been working at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Fla., for 25 years and has been writing software for large and small projects ever since.

One project is research and development of in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU, which means living off the land while exploring another planetary body. It could mean planting potatoes on Mars or extracting hydrogen and oxygen molecules from Martian soil. Leucht developed monitoring and control software for the project.

“ISRU is hot in the news right now,” he says. “And robotics are always hot in the news, it seems.”

He’s also the principal investigator on a project that created a swarm of small, lightweight, inexpensive mobile robots, called Swarmies, that are programed to behave like ants to seek and collect resources in an unknown environment.

And he’s the lead software engineer for a robotic excavator, the regolith advanced surface systems operations robot, or RASSOR.

Continued on page 39

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ERIC BOHANNAN:

EVER THE OPTIMIST If you’re looking for Eric Bohannan, PhD Chem’99, on a Saturday morning, chances are, you’ll find him on a soccer field.

Bohannan, a senior research specialist in Missouri S&T’s Materials Research Center, has been involved with soccer in Rolla since 1999, first as coach of his son’s Optimist team, later as a member of the Rolla Optimist Club and now also as president of the Rolla Area Youth Soccer League (RAYSL).

Between the Optimist and RAYSL programs, nearly 800 kids ages 4 to 14 are introduced to soccer. Over the years, Bohannan has coached at least 30 teams. He chaired the Optimist

soccer program for four years. Now he manages game-day operations.

“Soccer is a relatively inexpensive sport, requiring a ball, some goals and shin guards,” Bohannan says. “And the Optimist Club of Rolla never charges a fee for a child to participate in its programs.”

That service to the community is why Bohannan got involved with the Optimist Club.

“I like working with sincere, communityminded individuals who want to provide

beneficial activities and programs to the youth of Rolla, regardless of their ability to play.”

But the Optimist Club is about more than just soccer, and Bohannan helps out with nearly every project — from cooking sausage at the club’s flapjack breakfast and tying Christmas trees to cars at the annual tree-lot fundraiser to serving as announcer for the Optimist Spelling Bee and working with the boys and girls basketball, volleyball and tennis programs.

All that good work makes Bohannan happy.

“The Optimist Club of Rolla provides opportunities for participation in academic, service and sports activities to our youth with no barrier to entry. I like that,” Bohannan says. “Kids need positive things to do. The members of the Optimist Club are exceedingly positive people with can-do attitudes, good senses of humor and huge hearts. We do a lot of good for a relatively small amount of money. It’s my Mayberry.”

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the construction, engineering and real estate division for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in Little Rock, Ark.

1973 Steven H. Wunning, MetE, was elected to the board of directors of the Sherwin-Williams Co. Wunning recently retired as group president, Resource Industries Group of Caterpillar Inc. after 41 years. Wunning also was appointed to the Compensation and Management Development Committee of SherwinWilliams’ board.

1978 Stacy J. Sauer, CE, retired from BNSF Railway Aug. 1, 2015, after over 36 years with the engineering department. He held various positions, including field engineer, manager of standards and senior manager of engineering systems.

In these positions, Sauer managed early GPS surveying projects, developed new materials and track standards, and managed engineering IT projects.

1982 Steve Batts, ME, MS EMgt’91, was promoted to vice president of The Doe Run Co.’s southeast Missouri mining and milling division and the company’s metals division. The latter position includes a lead recycling facility in Boss, Mo., and a lead refining, alloying and casting operation in Herculaneum, Mo. Janet Kavandi, MS Chem, spoke at S&T’s December 2015 commencement ceremonies and was awarded a doctor of science, honoris causa.

Richard Kottemann Jr., GeoE, is enjoying semiretirement while consulting for gas utilities. He and his wife, Donna, had their first grandchild, a boy, in October 2014.

1984 Matt Bedinghaus, EE, was installed as president-elect of the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers, a 1,100-plus member statewide association headquartered in Jefferson City.

Bedinghaus is the owner, CEO and

chief engineer of A2V Partners LLC in Springfield, Mo.

1988 Michael D. “Mike” Beatty, ME, was named division president of Liberty Utilities Midstates Natural Gas Corp. Beatty has over 27 years of experience in the natural gas industry, and he moved into the position after holding the director of engineering and compliance position in the Jackson, Mo., corporate office.

1990 Ed Fuchs, EMgt, was named vice president of sales and marketing at Arrowhead Systems.

Fuchs will oversee the strategic direction of Arrowhead Systems’ sales and marketing teams, focusing on broadening exposure of the company’s brands. He joined Arrowhead Systems after holding top-level management positions at System Logistics, Malisko Engineering, Pasco and Ambitech.

Shannon Lambert, CE, MS CE’95, was hired as Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon

Inc.’s director of water services. He will be responsible for the development of growth and business opportunities within his unit. Lambert is a registered professional engineer in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.

Stan Schultz, CE, is the founder and owner of Schultz Surveying and Engineering (SSE) in Lake Ozark, Mo. SSE has won nearly $125 million in government funding for utility work, and the company counts over 30 cities as customers. The company also has offices in Branson, Mo., and Poplar Bluff, Mo. Breck R. Washam, ME, was installed as president of the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers, a 1,100-plus member statewide association headquartered in Jefferson City. For his year in office, Washam has selected the theme “Make It Personal” that will focus the membership on conducting recruitment, retention, reclamation and member-satisfaction activities with hands-on outreach.

HONORING NEW ACADEMY MEMBERS In October, 26 alumni and friends were inducted into Missouri S&T academies.

Academy membership recognizes careers of distinction and invites members to share their wisdom, influence and resources with faculty and students.

Some academies hold induction ceremonies in October, others in April.

ACADEMY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE William K. “Bill” Brune, CSci’69 Jeff Marker, EE’88, Susan Klemmer, MS CSci’66 Ralph Edward Lee, MS Phys’49

ACADEMY OF MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING Craig Barnes, ME’78 Gregory C. Busche, AE’85 Michael B. Calandro, ME’81, MS EMgt’91 Gerald L. “Jerry” Canfield, MS ME’99 Douglas E. Duchardt, ME’87 John M. “Mike” Evans, ME’67 Robert G. Steinhoff, ME’80

ACADEMY OF MINER ATHLETICS Steve Biederman, CE’72 Pete Colombatto, CE’71 Stu Dunlop, EMgt’76 Neil Fiala, ME’56 Pat Godwin, EMgt’72 Craig Heath, EE’81 Lorenzo Hill, ChE’70 Ron Hutchcraft, MinE’87, ME MinE’07 David McKinstry, EE’57 Doug Munsell, CE’60 Stephen Ombalski, CE’64 Joel Scharf, PetE’59 Leonard Stout, EMgt’70 Jerry Dorlac, NDD’55 Ron Replogle, NDD

Continued on next page

ALUMNUS TAKES A VOYAGE THROUGH SOLAR SYSTEM Chuck Lahmeyer, EE’66, is a big reason why the world knows what distant planets in our solar system look like. In 1975, he went to work for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California, and in 1980 he developed a machine to host the codes coming from the Voyager spacecraft on its journey to Uranus and Neptune.

The equipment used error-correcting codes created by engineers Irving Reed and Gustave Solomon. Lahmeyer’s Reed-Solomon machinery — on which he holds the patent — removes errors from the transmitted data, similar to cleaning up a snowy television picture. With his device, information on the planets’ brightness, magnetic field and temperature were correctly captured.

Lahmeyer also worked on Galileo, providing the designs for an incoder, a piece of circuit that other technicians later used to capture images and information.

Lahmeyer retired to Missouri and gives back to S&T regularly through his service to the Mid-Missouri Section of the Miner Alumni Association. He is the group’s president.

FIVE ALUMNI HONORED FOR PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT Missouri S&T presented five awards of professional distinction during commencement ceremonies in December.

The awards recognized the following graduates for professional achievement.

Paula Lutz, Chem’76 Julie E. Maurer, Hist’96 Ranney McDonough, CE’66 Louis P. Steinhauser, ME’80 David John Wisch, CE’75, MS CE’77

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MINER

UNIONS Matthew Kruse, NucE’14, married Jessica Perona on June 29, 2013. He works for the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare officer and completed a six-month deployment in July.

through extraordinary accomplishment, example and vision. It is presented annually to two deserving ASTM members.

1995 Susan Maurer, ME, joined Murphy Co. as a purchasing agent specializing in mechanical equipment.

Maurer, a mechanical engineer with 20 years’ experience in HVAC design, plumbing design and energy modeling, previously worked for SSC Engineering where she served as a project engineer since 2001.

Chris Rippee, ME, was hired as president of Triple/S Dynamics, a leading manufacturer of conveying, screening and separating equipment for the process industries.

Rippee began his career as a design engineer and advanced through management roles to his most recent role as vice president of operations.

1996 1991

1992

James Knutelski, CE, MS CE’02, recently celebrated 15 years of service as a geotechnical engineer at Hanson Professional Services Inc. Springfield, Ill., headquarters. Knutelski worked for the Missouri Department of Transportation as a construction inspector in Hannibal, Mo., and a resident engineer in Rolla.

Kent Jason Lowry, ME, an orthopedic surgeon at Northland Orthopedic Associates, part of Ministry Healthcare in Rhinelander, Wis., is a recipient of the 2015 American Society for Testing and Materials International President’s Leadership Award. The award recognizes individuals early in their ASTM career who have significantly advanced the society’s mission

Beverly D. Johnson, MS EMgt, has joined Financial Gravity as senior advisor of wealth management and financial planning.

She has over 16 years (active and reserve) in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and worked in two Fortune 100 companies before joining Financial Gravity.

1998 Col. Edward P. Chamberlayne, EMgt, became the 67th commander of the U.S. Army

Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, during a traditional military change of command ceremony at Fort McHenry. As commander and district engineer, Chamberlayne will be responsible for water resources development activities within the upper Chesapeake Bay watershed, which includes a six-state area and the District of Columbia.

Karthik Ganapathi, MS MetE, was hired

by Ascent Aerospace as customer service director to lead endto-end delivery of services for new and existing worldwide installations. Ganapathi joins Ascent Aerospace from Diebold, where he was the vice president and managing director for South Asia and Australia.

Richard G. Kaiser, MS EMgt, an Army brigadier general and commander of the Army Corps of Engineers Great Lakes and Ohio River Division based in Cincinnati, was appointed on Aug. 5 by President Barack Obama to the Mississippi River Commission.

The commission is responsible for improvements along the Mississippi River, from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

Joel Weinhold, GeoE, was promoted to branch manager of Geotechnology’s St. Louis office. He joined the company in April 2012 as a senior project manager, and since September 2012 he worked as Geoetechnology’s St. Louis group manager.

1999 Nathan Higgerson, GeoE, joined Hanson Professional Services Inc. as a power generation project manager and business development lead.

Previously, he was a senior engineer for coal combustion residuals at Prairie State Generating Co. in Marissa, Ill. Sara Nelson, GGph, CE’04, joined surveying firm Thouvenot, Wade & Moerchen Inc.’s downtown St. Louis office as a project engineer. With more than 10 years of civil engineering experience, she will design transportation and traffic engineering projects. TWM provides land surveying, civil and structural engineering design, construction observation and planning services to private and public sector clients.

200-yard breaststroke at Missouri S&T and a member of Army ROTC, served as a battalion intelligence officer in Afghanistan after college.

2004 Jack Pennuto Jr., ME, MS ME’05, was promoted to senior vice president of Formtek Inc., a designer and builder of metal forming and fabricating systems and tube and pipe mills. He joined Formtek in 2006 as an application engineer, where he has been sales and marketing director.

Andy Wohldmann, CE, joined McGrath & Associates as project manager. Wohldmann, who has experience in education, industrial, library, church and financial institution projects, will manage construction of Ameren substation projects.

2002

2005

Burlin L. Emery, MS EMgt, a lieutenant colonel in the Army, is the new deputy commander of the U.S. Army Support Center in Huntsville, Ala. A native of Huntsville, Emery previously was the deputy to the deputy chief of staff, engineer, at the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville.

Ben Seabough, AE, a member of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) cadre, was promoted to the rank of major on Oct. 1, 2015.

This promotion is a culmination of 10 years of active duty service to his country and the Air Force.

2003 Ryan Campbell, Bus, was named aquatics director and swim coach at Fork Union Military Academy in Fork Union, Va. Campbell, an AllAmerican in the

2006 Matt Funk, ArchE, was promoted to director of preconstruction for Brinkmann Constructors. Funk will lead Brinkmann through the preconstruction phase on multiple projects simultaneously. Funk Continued on page 42

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FUTURE MINERS

1

1. Joe Jackson, MBA’14, and his wife, Katie, had a girl, Hariett Harper, on June 19, 2015.

2. John Keeven, CE’05, and his wife, Katie, had a girl, Eliza, on May 21, 2015. She joins big brothers Landon and Will.

3. Jeremiah King, CE’06, and his wife, Maria (Conte) King, CE’05 MS CE’10, had a son, Philip Charles, on June 23, 2015. Charles joins big brothers Jeremiah Jr. and Frederick.

4

2

3

4. Will Kirby, ArchE’08, CE’08, and his wife, Brooke, had a girl, Reese Jane Kirby, on May 20, 2015.

5. Matthew Kruse, NucE’14, and his wife, Jessica (Perona) Kruse, had a son, Nathaneal, on Jan. 28, 2015.

6. Rodrick McDonald, ME’07, and his wife, Jamie (Webb) McDonald, EE’06, had a son, Jet Elijah, on Dec. 27, 2014. Jet joins brother Rocket Ramon, 4.

6

5

7. Dustin Mitchell, ME’07, MS EMgt’12, and his wife, Beth, had a boy, Emmett, on March 12, 2015.

8. Nathan Singleton, Bus’10, and his wife, Mindy, had a boy, Bryce Owen, on Oct. 31, 2015.

9. Cameron Sloan, ArchE’05, and his wife, Emily (Speorl) Sloan, Chem’08, had a boy, Tyler Frederick, on May 13, 2015. He joins sister Ella, 2.

7

8

10. John Stutsman, EE’77, and his wife, Kathy, welcomed a granddaughter, Veronica Nicole Stutsman, on Feb. 6, 2015. Parents are Brian and Kim Stutsman of Madison, Ohio. She was welcomed home by her brother, Luke.

11. Katie (Fluchel) Voss, EMgt’04, SysE’06, and her husband, Andrew, had twin boys, Luke and Landon, on May 9, 2015.

Grandfather is Don Fluchel, ME’72, and godmother is Danielle Miller, ME’04. Luke and Landon join sister Whitney, 3.

9

10

11

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INNOVATOR ENVISIONS BLACK SILICON VALLEY Vewiser Dixon, ME’73, has big plans for his hometown of Kansas City.

For several years, Dixon has been buying up land in the South Vine Corridor near the Historic Jazz District. Home to elementary, middle and high schools, the corridor is where Dixon’s vision lies.

“I want to build black Silicon Valley,” he told the Kansas City Star. “Technology jobs are the new promised land for minorities.

I want to create a startup village … and go beyond that by providing education, housing and retail so people have everything they need to live, work and play here.”

A successful business owner and business incubator (Dixon helped launch 16 black businesses in the 1980s and dozens more since), he believes people are the key to success.

“V told me not to worry about the money and focus on the people,” says Lucy McFadden, whom Dixon helped open her hair salons. “If you treat people well, employees and customers, the business will thrive.”

With backers such as former NBA player Clay Johnson, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and developer Troy Nash, Dixon hopes to break ground on the first phase of the village this year.

started with Brinkmann in 2007 as a project engineer and became a project manager in 2011. He most recently completed work on a $40 million project for Friendship Village in Sunset Hills, Mo.

2008 Seth Chappell, MS EMgt, and BJ Kraemer, MS EMgt, are contributing authors to The Strong Gray Line: War-Time Reflections from the West Point Class of 2004. The book includes a tribute to each of the 14 classmates who lost their lives fighting the global war on terror and 13 personal essays that detail some of the most brutal fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They plan to donate all proceeds from the book to charities chosen by fallen classmates’ families. Chappell continues to serve in uniform as a strategist based in Washington D.C. Kraemer works in business development for an East Coast management consulting firm.

2009

patent examiner in the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va.

2013 Nathan Clark, ArchE, joined Byrne & Jones Construction’s asphalt division as a project manager and estimator.

He will provide project costs and manage projects for the asphalt division, which serves commercial and municipal customers.

2011

Garrett Hausman, ME, a registered patent attorney, joined Patterson Intellectual Property Law as an associate.

His focus will be on protecting mechanical engineering inventions.

He previously was a

Luke Hamdorf, ME, joined the engineering department of Widseth Smith Nolting’s Brainerd, Minn., office.

2015 Katie Nelson, BSci, has landed a place in Indiana University Medical Center’s Program in Genetic Counseling. The program is one of 32 nationwide that offer a master’s degree in genetic counseling — a requirement for anyone wanting to pursue a career in the field.

These degree programs each receive around 200 applications and accept only three to 25 students annually.

Nelson credits her success in securing a place in part to her experience in the Iowa Institute of Human Genetics Summer Internship Program.

Jacob Phelps, CE’15, joined Byrne & Jones Construction’s asphalt division as a project manager and estimator.

He will provide project costs and manage projects for the asphalt division, which serves commercial and municipal customers.

OVAL OFFICE HONORS

Photo courtesy Pete Souza, White House photographer

Elizabeth (Gearon) Parry, EMgt’83, pictured fifth from the left, is one of 14 recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2015, presented by President Barack Obama. Parry teaches first-year engineering design at North Carolina State University, and she helps elementary and middle school teachers in teaching engineering to diverse students.

“These educators are helping to cultivate America’s future scientists, engineers and mathematicians,” Obama said. “They open new worlds to their students and give them the encouragement they need to learn, discover and innovate. That’s transforming those students’ futures — and our nation’s future, too.”

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Illustration courtesy Rob Cabrerra/Creative Squirrels

STEPH EVANS:

STEM SUPERHERO Steph Evans is out to change the way people look at engineering — and at engineers.

By day, this STEM superhero works as an electrical test engineer at Space Systems Loral in Palo Alto, Calif. But by night and on weekends, Evans, AE’12, devotes hours researching, writing, filming and producing educational videos for her YouTube channel, The STEMulus. Check it out at rol.la/STEMulus.

Evans started the channel last February and in just over a year, has gained over 600 followers. In a typical week, she’ll spend 20 to

30 hours creating weekly commentary on the latest science and technology news — a feature she calls This Week in STEM, or TWISTEM — as well as occasional video blogs about her life and interests in space and space-related topics.

“It keeps me up a lot of nights, but it’s also a lot of fun,” she says.

Growing up in Mascoutah, Ill., Evans dreamed of becoming an astronaut. “I always loved space, but it wasn’t until high school that I

heard the term ‘aerospace engineer,’ and that was when everything kind of clicked into place for me,” she says.

“Quite frankly, when I look back on my life, the fact that I pursued engineering at all is a surprise,” she says. “The resources just weren’t there. I had my parents (both are high school teachers), who told me I could be whatever I wanted to be, and they made sure I had whatever books I wanted to read and science experiments I wanted to do, but there were no outreach programs or science clubs when I was younger.”

Evans wants to share her STEM passion with other young women.

“Overall, I just want to be the visible female STEM role model that I lacked growing up — not because they weren’t out there, but because I just had no idea they existed,” she says. “I hope that if there’s a little girl out there that is the ‘weird’ kid who is interested in science like I was, she might watch The STEMulus and see someone just like her and not be afraid to pursue her interests.”

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MINERS REMEMBERED 1938 Roland D. Freidank, CE (June 30, 2015)

1940

before returning to the U.S. and joining the Navy as a Seabee during World War II. He spent his career as a petroleum engineer and retired from Honeymon Drilling Co. in Oklahoma City.

(Sept. 12 2015)

1943 Michael A. Cantazaro, MinE (Aug. 27, 2015) Herman B. Schmid, EE, was a member of the Radio Club and was retired from the U.S. Navy. (Jan. 26, 2014)

1942

James H. Morris, NDD (June 6, 2015)

1948 Alphonsus M. Deichmann, MinE (Aug. 17, 2015) Robert E. Held, CE (June 14, 2015) Joseph T. Hepp, MetE (April 12, 2015) Lawrence J. Jamboretz, EE (May 17, 2015)

Albert T. Sindel Jr., MinE, was a member of the Miner football team and Kappa Sigma fraternity. He worked in South America as a mining engineer

David G. Smith, CE (Oct. 6, 2015)

1949

Missouri S&T Magazine will announce deaths when information is submitted by an immediate family member or published in a newspaper obituary.

Notification of deaths that have occurred more than two years before the date of publication will not be published unless a special request is made by a family member.

Yearbook photos, if available, will be included for alumni when families submit obituary information. Due to the production time required for each issue, submissions may take up to six months to appear. Your patience is appreciated.

Peter R. Perino, EE (Oct. 8, 2015)

1951 Robert D. DuBois, CE (July 19, 2015)

1952 John F. Bruskotter, PetE (Sept. 28, 2015) William Dale Carter, ChE, was a member of Alpha Chi Sigma and worked for Eastman Kodak. (Sept. 27, 2015)

1950 Stuart S. Brown, ChE (June 28, 2015) Fredrick D. Cochran, EE (Sept. 24, 2015) Ralph Davis, ME (Nov. 26, 2013) Geraldine Hawkins, CE (July 3, 2015) Necati Kanatsiz, CE (July 28, 2014) Edward P. Kyburz, MinE (July 3, 2015) Joseph Milich, ME (March 17, 2015) Thomas L. Nickens, Phys (July 21, 2015)

Anibel Jose “A.J.� da Silva, Phys, was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and a strong supporter of the physics department.

He was a navigator on an 11-man crew Navy Privateer flying 1,000mile missions in the South Pacific during World War II. In 1963 he went to work for NASA and worked with Apollo astronauts preparing them for their missions.

(Nov. 6, 2014) William A. Spencer, ME (June 14, 2015) Otis R. Ummel, ChE (Aug. 13, 2015) Norman A. Vaniman, ChE (July 10, 2015) Arthur W. Yager, ME (Sept. 14, 2015)

Henry F. Honigfort, EE (April 18, 2015)

Richard Lee Light, ME, was a member of Army ROTC, Wesley and the Baptist Student Union. After being commissioned into the Army, he was attached to the U.S. Air Force.

He later joined the Reserves and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. (Feb. 12, 2015) David A. Meskan, MetE (Aug. 3, 2015) Vernon R. Scott, ME (July 21, 2015)

1953 David P. Robinson, PetE (Jan. 9, 2014)

1954 Joe E. Gray, GGph (Sept. 11, 2015) Harry E. Poe, EE (June 23, 2015)

Gene Austin Huffman, CE, was a letterman in basketball, football and track, a member of Jackling Jocks, and is a member of the Missouri S&T Sports Hall of Fame. He was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, Blue Key and Chi Epsilon. He worked 40 years for Gulf Oil Co. and was an Army MP before the Korean War. (Feb. 5, 2015)

Robert A. Shoolbred, CE (Aug. 23, 2015)

1955 George F. Carini, CerE (Oct. 9, 2015) Eugene L. Taylor, GGph (Sept. 11, 2015)

1956 William C. Bohres, ME (Oct. 9, 2015) Donald D. Brown, ME (Oct. 5, 2015) Continued on page 46

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WE REMEMBER 2

1

1. John Beverly Clark, professor emeritus of metallurgical engineering at Missouri S&T, died Sept. 16, 2015. On several leaves of absence, Mr. Clark served at the National Science Foundation in what is now the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He received the Howe Award from the American Society for Metals, and in 1986 he was named an ASM Fellow. He also worked for Dow Chemical Co., Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. Department of Commerce until 2005.

2. Dr. John L. Best, CE’55, MS CE’57, professor emeritus of civil engineering and interim chair of the civil engineering department in 1986, died Oct. 6, 2015. He began working in 1955 as a research assistant at Missouri S&T, and in 1989 he received the Joseph H. Senne Jr. Academy of Civil Engineers Faculty Achievement Award.

He received outstanding teaching awards at Missouri S&T in 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87 and 1987–88. He was a member of Sigma Xi, Chi Epsilon, Tau Beta Pi and Phi Kappa Phi honorary and service societies.

Dr. Best served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, and after his discharge he worked for the Missouri

4

3

5

Department of Transportation. He earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering in 1965 from Vanderbilt University.

3. Dr. Harry Waldron Weart, chair of Missouri S&T’s metallurgical engineering department from 1964 to 1992, died Aug. 18, 2015. He was an Army MP in the Panama Canal Zone in 1945–47, where he became an expert marksman.

He earned a bachelor of science degree in metallurgy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1951 and master of science and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After retirement, he moved to Eagle River, Wis., where he served as a leader and organizer for a number of different organizations, including the Boy Scouts, community music and environmental protection associations.

His hobbies included model building, needlework and rug making.

4. Dr. David Oakley, professor emeritus of music at Missouri S&T, died Sept. 10, 2015.

Dr. Oakley served as president of Kappa Kappa Psi, a national honorary music society, and was twice a member of the group’s board of trustees. He had 10 research awards, including a National

6

Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in American Music Heritage, and in 1985 he was awarded the Bohumil Makovsky Award for outstanding band directors. In 1992, Dr. Oakley received the Missouri S&T Alumni Merit Award for his outstanding accomplishments and leadership in the field of teaching.

5. John E. Schork, MetE’47, died April 1, 2015.

Mr. Schork spoke at commencement at Missouri S&T in 1982, and was awarded an honorary doctorate. He retired as CEO of Research-Cottrell, a supplier of air pollution control technology for utilities, refineries and other industries. Upon his death, he left a deferred gift benefitting Missouri S&T. 6. Kirk T. Mescher, ME’78, a member of Pi Tau Sigma, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers, died Aug. 19, 2015. He was involved in the early planning stages of the Missouri S&T campus geothermal energy project and was a design consultant for the Gale Bullman Building portion of the project. He was a former vice president of CM Engineering, a design engineer at Semco Manufacturing and a principal at CM Engineering.

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DR. GEORGE MUELLER, EE’39, MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO APOLLO PROGRAM, DIES Dr. George E. Mueller, EE’39, the head of NASA’s Office of Manned Spaceflight in the 1960s, died Oct. 12, 2015. He was 97. Dr. Mueller was a key figure in seeing that the Apollo space program put a man on the moon and returned him home safely, which happened in July 1969 with Apollo 11. He was a proponent of what he called “all-up” testing, where everything being used on a space mission was tested all at once instead of incrementally. NASA acknowledges that without “all-up” testing, the first manned landing could not have happened as early as 1969. A winner of the National Medal of Science, Dr. Mueller also was actively involved in plans for Skylab, the first U.S. space station. In 2011, Mueller was honored as one of Missouri S&T’s Alumni of Influence.

1

1. Dr. George E. Mueller, EE'39. Photo by Adam Buchanan Photography.

2. Dr. Mueller with Saturn V inventor Dr. Wernher Von Braun near the mobile launcher.

3. Dr. Mueller gives Saturn V orientation to President John F. Kennedy and other officials at Cape Canaveral.

4. NASA Officials in the Control Room during the Apollo 11 launch.

5. Sketch of Skylab Dr. Mueller drew in 1966.

6. Mission officials celebrate in the Launch Control Center following the successful Apollo 11 launch on July 16, 1969.

2

Photos 2–6 courtesy NASA.

William E. Hygh, EE (June 9, 2015) George P. Merk, GGph (April 27, 2015) E. Paul Remmers, ME, was a member of Blue Key, Independents (GDI), Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma. He retired from General Motors Corp. as a staff research engineer in July 1992. (July 21, 2015)

1957 James R. Graham, ME (Jan. 20, 2015)

Robert C. Kieffer, CE, was a member of Chi Epsilon, Independents and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He retired in 1992 as a project manager for Chevron Corp. (Jan. 3, 2015)

James B. Lorenz, CE (July 13, 2015)

1958 Earl E. Anspach, EE (Aug. 3, 2015) Michael Cullen, PetE (July 18, 2015) Carl M. Herren, EE (Aug. 29, 2015) Harold C. Lietz, EE (Dec. 13, 2014) Charles Keith Miller, CerE (June 30, 2015) Theodore A. Pelliccotto, MinE (Sept. 27, 2013) Lester H. Winter, CE (Aug. 5, 2015)

1959 Mike J. Higgins, MetE (Sept. 8, 2013)

John G. Stoecker II, ME, was a past president of Independents and Student Council and was a member of the Tech Engine Club, the Society of Automotive Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

He worked for Monsanto and Stoecker & Associates.

(May 23, 2015)

1961 James A. Markway, ME (July 1, 2015)

1960

3

4

William A. Anderson, CE (Sept. 6, 2015)

Robert C. Mitchell, ChE, was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, Independents, Christian

5

6

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Campus Fellowship and the Baptist Student Union. An Army veteran and a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, he worked for more than 25 years at the AMAX Inc. nickel plant, retiring in September 2000. (July 23, 2015) Clyde L. Waldo, EE (June 9, 2015)

1963

R. Dalton Welsh, EE (July 9, 2014)

1967 Roy R. Dare, ME (May 4, 2015) Donald R. Dressler, CE (Sept. 7, 2015) Ralph R. Landry, ME (Sept. 21, 2015)

1968 Jack L. Chadwick, ME (Aug. 9, 2015) Barry Gregory, Math, MS CSci’70 (Aug. 3, 2015) Dick O. Mooy, ME (Oct. 15, 2014)

David O. Cox, ChE, was a member of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, Alpha Chi Sigma, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and Missouri Miner.

He retired as the plant manager of WR Grace & Co. in 2005. (Oct. 20, 2015) Raymond H. Schaffart, ME (June 19, 2015) William E. Saunders, ChE (Sept. 29, 2015)

1964 Richard G. Greeley, MetE (July 10, 2015) Robert D. Range, EE (July 13, 2015)

1965 Sylvester W. Braswell, CE (March 18, 2015) Paul A. Cook, EE (Sept. 29, 2015) Dennis W. Stover, CE (May 4, 2015)

a senior engineer at Bechtel. He joined the Army in 1975 and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel before retiring in 2001.

He previously worked for EK Fox as a senior engineer and Techato International as a senior control engineer.

(Aug. 26, 2015) Vincent L. Pellegrino, ME (April 19, 2015) Lauren D. Sperry, ME (July 3, 2015)

1975 Dennis J. Albers, CE (Oct. 9, 2015)

1979

2002

service at Fort Leonard Wood. (Aug. 6, 2015)

Everett A. Williams, Psyc (July 5, 2015)

David Ryan Burd, ME (June 29, 2015)

Tim S. Jones (Oct. 5, 2015)

1980

2013

Stephen G. Steele, ChE (Oct. 4, 2015)

Kyla Justene Erich, GeoE (July 28, 2015)

1981

Lisa C. Simone, BSci, was a member of Kappa Delta sorority, the Mars Rover Design Team and was a Missouri S&T cheerleader.

(Sept. 28, 2015)

John K. Bryan, NucE (Oct. 9, 2015)

1987 Aaron Wade Epperly, ChE (July 29, 2014)

1992

1969

Michael P. Tonelis, MetE (July 22, 2015)

David A. Sauer, ChE (June 29, 2015)

1994

1970 Bernard J. Heine, EMgt (March 17, 2015) Stephen J. Kathmann, ME (Sept. 14, 2015) Carl W. Schliwa, ME (July 7, 2015) William P. Strong, CSci (Oct. 26, 2015)

1972 Douglas H. Strattman, ME (July 27, 2015)

1973 Francis M. Fulkerson, CE (Aug. 22, 2014)

1974 Lawrence D. Altepeter, EE, was a member of Army ROTC and

Ricky Eugene Larson, CE, MS CE’81, was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, Chi Epsilon, Tau Beta Pi, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the C.L. Dake Society. He worked for Kleinfelder and Associates as a senior consultant.

(Aug. 1, 2015) Roberta L. Treasurer, Chem (July 11, 2015)

1977 John W. Renner, CE (Aug. 26, 2015)

1978 Eugene G. Knopf, NDD (Aug. 19, 2015)

Patricia CuartasVillegas, CE, was a member of the Society of Women Engineers.

During her career, she worked at Project Time & Cost Inc., One Places West, MWH Constructors and the U.S. Department of Energy as a risk analyst.

(Sept. 28, 2015)

1997 David G. Burwell, Hist (July 18, 2015) Terry James Simms, NDD (Aug. 29, 2015)

2015 Jacob Paul Barger, ME (Aug. 31, 2015)

FRIENDS Andrew J. Baum (April 22, 2015) Joe Boze, an engineering technician II in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at Missouri S&T. (Oct. 31, 2015)

James L. Kassner (Oct. 8, 2015) Barb Kohser, wife of Ronald Kohser, professor emeritus of materials science and engineering at Missouri S&T. (Nov. 9, 2015) Ava G. Mace, a cook at Missouri S&T. (Sept. 9, 2015) Elizabeth Dennis Marble, wife of Jim Marble, PetE’61 (June 26, 2015) Betty May (Aug. 9, 2014) Elanor Mitter (May 18, 2013) Lee C. Murray (Jan. 7, 2014) Leah H. Pagel (Aug. 13, 2015) Samuel Patrick Thomas Rude (July 29, 2015) Donald Poskin (Sept. 21, 2015)

Garnett Carnahan (Feb. 22, 2014)

Brian W. Smith, a refrigeration mechanic at Missouri S&T. (July 19, 2015)

Frank Dean Cone (Sept. 3, 2015)

Earline Turner (July 11, 2015)

Ben A. Geisert (April 1, 2014)

Michael S. Wells (July 17, 2015)

Thomas L. Gutcher (July 14, 2015)

Wayne E. Wright (Aug. 26, 2015)

Charles William Irwin, supervisor of computer operations at Missouri S&T for 32 years until he retired in 2001. In 1962, he was drafted into the Army, and he spent the bulk of his two-year

Isis E. Zimmerman (Sept. 12, 2014) 

Joe Brown (Aug. 5, 2015)

MISSOURI S&T MAGAZINE 47

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John and Marie Eash at the Bauer Bar in Hasselmann Alumni House. The Eashes supported the alumni house by naming one of the barstools in the Bauer Bar.

COMING FULL CIRCLE: JOHN AND MARIE EASH It isn’t surprising that what attracted John Eash, AE’79, MS EMgt’90, to Missouri S&T as a student is exactly what brought him back 40 years later as an employee.

Because Eash has always believed in the power of partnerships.

That belief attracted him to S&T’s co-op program as a high school senior. It drove his involvement as president of the Miner Alumni Association and Boeing’s chief executive focal. And, ultimately, it brought him back to campus last August as the university’s first executive director of corporate relations.

“My father, who was an engineer at McDonnell Douglas, learned about the co-op program at Rolla,” says Eash. “We talked about what a great opportunity

it would be — valuable work experience and a good salary while I was earning my degree.”

The aspiring aerospace engineer decided to become a Miner. For five semesters, he gained experience working for McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) through the co-op program. He joined the company full time after graduation and went on to a distinguished 36year corporate career in flight test engineering, manufacturing, supply chain management and quality control.

But service was as important as success to Eash — and giving

back to S&T was a priority. He joined the alumni association board and became Boeing’s chief executive focal for S&T, a position focused on employee recruitment, research and development, and continuing education. Under his leadership, new initiatives blossomed: a student mentoring program, campus speaker network, Boeing Day at S&T and two milestones in 2014 — a master research agreement and Boeing office at Innovation Park.

Eash has now come full circle from co-op student to corporate liaison to campus leader. “The

opportunity to lead a new corporate relations office has been the biggest — and most unexpected — milestone of my relationship with S&T,” he says.

Meanwhile, Eash and his wife, Marie, are settling into life in Rolla and doing what they’ve always done: give back. They recently established a planned gift that will create endowments in support of three priorities near and dear to their hearts: the alumni association, mechanical and aerospace engineering department, and Miners by Design, the donor group that supports S&T’s 14 student design teams.

“Missouri S&T has been a huge part of our lives for many years,” says Eash. “We hope to inspire future generations of Miners to feel the pride that comes with giving back.”

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PHOTO FINISH: MILLENNIUM ARCH Designed by sculptor Edwina Sandys and cut from Missouri red granite using waterjet technology developed at Missouri S&T, the 15-foot-tall Millennium Arch on the Castleman Hall lawn stands as a perfect example of the intersection of science and art.

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Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Liberty, MO Permit #143

A PUBLICATION OF THE MINER ALUMNI ASSOCIATION REPRESENTING AND SERVING ALUMNI OF MSM, UMR AND MISSOURI S&T

MINERS GIVE BACK

Miner Alumni Association 1100 N. Pine St. Rolla, MO 65409-0650

SPRING 2016 VOL. 90 NO. 1

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Parents: If this issue of Missouri S&T Magazine is addressed to your son or daughter who has established a separate permanent address, please notify us of the new address: 800-JO-MINER or alumni@mst.edu.

MAGAZINE.MST.EDU

Forging their futures in Rolla. Forever changing the world.

MISSOURI S&T’S 2016

Join us for a celebration of innovation, exploration, leadership and impact as we honor 10 Miners for their lasting contributions to our university and the wider world. Meet them on page 5.

The 2016 Alumni of Influence Gala Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016 Missouri S&T Rolla, Missouri

SAVE THE DATE. WATCH FOR DETAILS. For more information, contact Sarah Jones at jonessarah@mst.edu, or visit influence.mst.edu.

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